


Activation

by JustThatAverageFeeling



Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: British!Theo Gauthier, Elements from Season One Will Be Re-Used, Even if I make it look like he doesn't, Everything Else Is Kind Of The Same But Not So Much, Football Bros (Ulrich Stern + Theo Gauthier), Gen, He really does I swear, I Don't Even Know, I mean look at all those extra plotlines in Season One, Jeremie Tries, Lincoln Junior High School is a school in the CL series, Odd Della Robbia is a Good Bro, Odd is Oblivious, Odd is a Program, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, So many choices to expand on later on, Ulrich Stern's Infamous Denial of Feelings™, What Was I Thinking?, Yumi's Family Problems™, no regrets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-10-23 17:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10723707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustThatAverageFeeling/pseuds/JustThatAverageFeeling
Summary: Created to serve many purposes, the program found it was unique. It was activated inside a virtual world to resolve bugs and errors. It couldn't have known that the other developing program inside would later turn malicious. Then again, if the program hadn't become corrupted then it wouldn't have met these new people that entered Lyoko and changed it, for better and for worse. *AU*Or...Where Odd, instead of being a normal human as canon dictates, is a program in Lyoko. Of course, he lives his life by his programming all until he meets the Lyoko Warriors which turn it upside down in a good and bad way.





	1. Awakening to the World Calling

**1\. Awakening to the World Calling**

**_...95%..._ **

**_...100%..._ **

**_Download complete. Virtualization process activated._ **

_Alertness took control of its body as soon as it became active. It grunted, falling onto blue land. It quickly identified it as baby blue as it stared at its hands. Or... what should have been its hands. Instead, big purpureus paws took their place with tiny bits of white at each end. It stood, allowing its amber eyes to overlook its body just for a moment. It noticed its pointed blonde hair with a purple splotch was still intact, much like its body structure. The other things that were different was that it was wearing a sleeveless eminence shirt, a bit of an undershirt colored goldenrod and magenta which connected to its matching eminence and palatinate pants. It also donned saffron knee pads and shoes that were same shade of yellow._

_Taking in the scenery around it, it looked like the world was vast and void of life. The place where it was sent to looked to be like an ice region. It was made for some reason, but it really didn't understand, "Owner, what is your first command?" It asked, head tilted at its new form. Dressing like a big, purple cat was never its intention. What happened to being created to look like a human, like the first memory it could recall?_

_"Owner?" A male's voice responded from above, like it was far away but up close at the same time. The voice vibrated in its ears, like a being speaking with it by thought rather than being in front of it, "Hmm, is that what you'll be calling me?" It wasn't the voice it was used to. Instead of a light, sweet tone it was a deep, gruff one._

_"I haven't received a command listing you as something else," It automatically replied as its purpureus tail with aureolin stripes swayed lazily side to side. The way it felt the air bite at its tail, it felt the chill of the frozen land around it, "It would be logical to address you as Owner."_

_The man's hum echoed in its head. The empty world did not react to his voice whatsoever, like he only addressed the program, "Call me Professor. And as your first command, I would like you to follow your coding."_

_It clicked its tongue, sitting down onto the frozen ground. It dragged its claws along the ice, adjusting to the sudden change in its temperature. Before, it could barely recall a little piece of land with binary coding. That computer was different, warmer than the place it had been downloaded into now, "My coding allows me to do what I'm commanded to do, it does not have a set job for me. Does being dressed as a purple cat pertain to what you would like me to do?"_

_"What you are dressed as now is not required in what I will have you do. Though the world you are now in creates what it feels like you want to be, in a sense."_

_It scowled, "I do not want to be a purple cat."_

_"Of course you don't," Amusement rang in his tone, "But Lyoko thinks you want to be. It is a virtual world that I created to protect those I care about from the world outside, which is filled with mayhem. This will be my final project, a peaceful world."_

_"The new coding Lyoko has given me claims I have weapons. I can summon gauntlets to shoot arrows, wield a lilac shield and access an ability of precognition. Having weapons wouldn't make this the world you wish to have."_

_The Professor went silent after that. It took approximately five minutes before the man responded to it, "Sometimes using force is the only way we can achieve a world without danger."_

* * *

_"What is this, Professor?" It asked, staring at the giant, tan candle-like thing that stretched high into the sky. It couldn't even see the top to the strange thing, but it did notice the beautiful snow white aura it released in the sky. The icy region was becoming a familiar place, a new home it guessed. In its head, it easily counted the time after being placed into this new world. It had been only a week and by the way the Professor worked on it day to day, he must have a lot of time to spare._

_"It's a way tower. One of many that I created to reach the other sectors. The sector you reside in is Sector One, or the Glacier Region. There are other sectors in the virtual world but my main focus is on the Desert Region, the Forest Region and the Mountain Region."_

_It stepped forward, resting its paws against the tan-white color of the tower, "Why are you telling me this extra information?"_

_"Because," The program bit back a gasp, its amber eyes watching as a ripple of light blue stretched outward from its touch, "Your job is to make sure there are no bugs in what I create. I have other matters to focus on and you'll be a wonderful help to make sure I don't leave any error unattended too. It'll be your goal as you roam around Lyoko. I will call you the Overwriting Debugging Daemon. With the abilities you carry, you can take care of any error that may stand in your way. Your arrows purify anything they hit, the shield blocks any attack that hits you and your precognition allows you to predict an error and how to solve it before it comes into fruition. Now that you know your purpose, see to it that you get to work quickly."_

_Nodding, the program allowed the tower to swallow its body. With a slight stumble, it stepped along a long blue platform with glowing white rings, "Understood, Professor."_

* * *

_The Professor didn't speak with it after that. He left it to its duties of checking over each program to make sure there was no errors in them. After all, being dubbed the Overwriting Debugging Daemon meant that he would overwrite the programs that had bad coding, debug those with measly errors and work without constant supervision._

_It continued its work in silence. Trying to note each day that passed outside of the virtual world, it was difficult. The reason why was because the day continuously was the 6th of June. It tried to find out on its own why it continued to be that day every day but there was no logical answer. The Daemon couldn't access the programming that made the supercomputer and it didn't want to bother the Professor. So after the fifth time the day repeated, it let its worries go and continued to focus on doing what the Professor didn't have time to do. It worked on improving the virtual world from afar as the Professor worked on what he deemed as "more important"._

_Sometimes during the time it worked, it felt little pricks in its body. Whenever it checked, it noticed that its coding was upgraded with new information. The Professor hadn't forgotten it, but he didn't talk with it at all. When it looked at the updates in its codes, it noticed that the ten ammo limit of his purifying arrows had been increased with the new mechanism the Professor created to shoot them. Twenty four arrows to release, twelve in each gauntlet that summons onto its paws. The shield stretches over one side of its form, though it doesn't last very long. The precognition was the only thing that seemed "buggy" at best because it couldn't change what it saw. Sadly, even with the power to correct everything around it, the program couldn't correct what was inside its coding._

_It felt off sometimes, a feeling it couldn't really identify. Like it wanted something to be there, to talk with it. But all it had was the world around it and that may be all it needed._

* * *

_One day, as it roamed through the luscious scenery of the forest region something changed. It couldn't put a finger on what exactly was different_ _, but it was as if a big change was beginning. The Daemon frowned, as some sort of creature walked close to it. It was small, its body slightly tanned with a black eye on its body and weird, silver pieces on its bottom to help it move, "Hello there, little guy." The Overwriting Debugging Daemon greeted, waving its paw. Scanning the thing, it identified the shape as a sort of cockroach creature, and inside the creature was something... off. Something the program couldn't identify. Was it an error?_

_The cockroach creature stepped a little closer, a ruby red glow appearing in front of it. It watched as the glow began to brighten then quickly jolted as the red light shot from the glow and hit the purple cat in the arm. "Ow!" The Daemon cried, backing away from where it stood before. It nursed its wound, the red light (laser?) making its form alight with electricity in the vicinity of the attack. It was a sharp, hot feeling that was way different than the warm feeling of the desert region it had been to before. A frown made its way onto its face as it stared at the creature in shock, "Why did you attack me?"_

_Not bothering to answer, the little machine began to charge another attack. The program had enough, for it raised its paws. Searching through its coding, it quickly found what it needed. A white glow surrounded his paws and two black gauntlets took their place. The yellow and white on its digital purple fur stood out from the holes in the gauntlets that allowed its fur to "breathe". The Daemon positioned them, aiming directly at the creature. With a battle cry, it shot its gauntlets and watched as three blue-yellow arrows rained from each weapon onto the monster. It didn't move, taking the damage full-front. After all six arrows made contact, it exploded in a white light._

_"Heh," The program grinned, walking forward with a little skip as the gauntlets disappeared in their white glow, "That wasn't all that hard-"_ _It yelped, feeling the stinging sensation of the red light hit its back. Amber eyes stared behind it, seeing flying creatures colored different shades of green with the same black eye on its body and a long stinger hanging from the bottom half of its face. Staring for only a moment to scan it, the Daemon watched as more of them gathered next to the one that shot at it. Calculating the different courses of action it could take, it chose one that made the best sense._

_Fleeing from the growing army of flying monsters, it pounced along the region's ground on all fours. It could hear the buzzing from the hornet-like creatures behind it and put in a bit more effort as it ran. Suddenly, it heard a sound that was becoming a bit too familiar._

**_Pew! Pew-pew!_ **

_Grunting, it tumbled as it immediately tried to halt its run. Right in front of it was a gathering of white orbs, going different directions as the same creatures that chased it shot at them. The program grimaced, bringing itself to a stand as its gauntlets appeared once more, "Hey, why are you creatures picking on some innocent orbs?" It pondered, shooting back at the red light shooting monsters._

_"Daemon!" It snapped its head away from facing its target, staring at the white orbs. The voice that emitted from them..._

_"Professor?"_

_"Yes," The man sounded winded, even though the virtual world shouldn't leave him like that, "It's a surprise to find you roaming in this part of Lyoko, but I welcome it greatly. I have one more command for you."_

_Taking notice of the flying monsters trying to shoot at the orbs again, the purple cat attempted to continue fire at them, "What would that be, sir?"_

_"Protect the one I love from the monster I cannot stop." He begged, "Her name is Aelita, and I want you to see to it that in the end, she is happy."_

_"What about you?" It couldn't help but ask, "Where are you going?"_

_Like the first time it met him, the white orbs that were the Professor went quiet. But this time, it didn't take the approximate time of five minutes. It took only about a minute for it to respond, "I cannot confirm where I'll be going. All I can confirm is that you possess an ability that she cannot use and she has an ability you do not have. Use them wisely and follow both commands I have given you since you've arrived here." Another red laser stabbed at it, sending the purple cat program to the ground. It grunted, placing its paws against the ground to pull itself up only to have it fail by another red light hitting him square in the forehead._

_A weird feeling suddenly consumed its digital body, making its body fade away into white and blue pixels. The process was slow, which allowed it to stare at the white orbs, "What's happening to me, Professor?"_

_"Everything will be okay for you, your reset will begin sometime soon. Just please, heed my commands once you return and-"_

_Whatever the Professor was trying to say to it cut off suddenly, the world becoming eerily silent. Something ate away at its alertness to its surroundings and everything became pitch black. Greeting the darkness, the purple cat drifted off in his forced shutdown and gave up trying to stay active._

* * *

_**...95%...** _

_**...100%...** _

_**Reloading complete. Virtualization process activated.** _

Awareness hit it like a train as it landed gracefully onto the familiar colorful land of chestnut and sandy brown. It looked to the sky, tilting its head to the side as it viewed the trees that were so tall that they disappeared into the sky. What had happened? Why did it feel so energized? After staring at the sky for a moment, it looked around the clearing. The monsters that attacked the Professor was gone and yet the orbs that made the man disappeared as well. How long was it since it had been active and roaming?

It scanned its memory to assure itself that there was no errors in it. Then, it accessed the daily programs that the supercomputer ran, looking over them to see what exact moment in time it was. It opened its mouth to emit a scream over the forest, " _ **AH!"**_ Raising its paws to its head in its panic, it pressed them to his head. It had been about ten years since it was activated. _Ten._

Did that mean that if it experienced what happened with the flying creatures that it'd be shut down once again for that long of a time? "This can't be happening..." The blonde murmured, removing one of its paws from its head to place underneath its chin, "What a predicament. I haven't been activated to resume my commands in a long time. I better get back my duties as the Overwriting Debugging Daemon."

About to take off, its tail twitched as a voice boomed through its head much like the Professor's had before, _"Maya, did you scream? Are you okay?"_

Tilting its head at the sky, the program spoke up, "No, this 'Maya' did not. I did, though may I know who you are? You don't exactly sound like the Professor..."

_"H-Hello!"_ The voice was a male, though it wasn't as deep as the Professor's. Could it be a child? _"I'm Jeremie Belpois. Could I inquire who I am speaking with?"_

Placing a paw against its chest, it beamed at the sky, "I am the Overwriting Debugging Daemon. Nice to meet you, Jeremie. Do you know where the Professor is, I'd like to ask about my programming in Lyoko."

_"Lyoko? Professor? Sorry, I wouldn't know about either."_

The program waved its paw, "Well Jeremie, the virtual world you have access to is called Lyoko. The sector your voice is being projected into is the Forest Sector. The reason why it's named that way? Well, there's a bunch of trees everywhere and the ground looks similar to the pictures of forest ground that I had looked up before."

Jeremie's voice hummed and much like the Professor's, the world didn't seem to hear him, _"So you say. You appear to be very close to my friend, Maya. Could you go meet up with her?"_

It nodded, its eyes skimming at the floor to track if any errors had blossomed during his deactivation. It looked like none had, thankfully, "Sure, why not? I have a little time before I head off and check over the other sectors to see if any programmings have changed or bugged up since my deactivation."

_"Just head straight and you'll see a tower, Daemon."_ Ah, the towers. That brought back memories of correcting the sequence to allow transportation through them. It was a troubling time because it took about five hours to fix it. Five hours wasted away to find errors in other programming instead spent to fix one program. The feline-human pounced away along the grass shaded ground. Spending only three minutes running, it reached the tan shaded candle that was one of the many way towers of the forest sector.

"I'm here, Jeremie." It replied, walking to the big cylinder structure. It rested its paws against the wall, enjoying the beautiful blue ripples that gave away where the entrance.

_"Good. Maya, this is the other person on Lyoko. It's a program dubbed the Overwriting Debugging Daemon."_ Sliding through the fake wall, the cat-human stumbled along the blue platform until it regained its balance. A girl with reddish-pink hair stood up from her seat on the middle ring of the platform, exchanging looks with it. Its amber eyes gazed at a shade of green that it hadn't seen with its time on Lyoko.

"Hello there," She greeted, walking over carefully to him, "You are a program that has existed on Lyoko for a while now, yes?"

"Of course! But pardon me Miss, I haven't seen you before. Would I call you Maya, like Jeremie has been before?"

The pink-haired girl shrank in on herself, a solemn expression on her face, "You don't know me either." Her tone was sad, obviously not accusing it for not knowing what she was.

It flashed a toothy smile, strolling to her. She looked like an elf human since her ears were pointed. Her left ear has a small dangle earring that crossed similarities to a fishing lure when it scanned the earring. Her attire consisted of a light pink-and-white mini skirt and a matching top that go over trousers and a long shirt that are both off-white, and matching shoes. She also has light pink, maroon-edged white arm warmers covering her lower arms, "Do not worry yourself Maya. You must have been what the Professor was working on when he sent me to keep check of Lyoko for him. You'll figure out who you are soon." It assured her, placing its paws on top of her shoulders. Its fur bristled at the touch, the feeling of something other than the stiff ground a blessing for once.

She chuckled, taking her hands to remove its paws off of her, "Your fur feels funny."

"Do you remember the last thing you had done before?" It asked her, dismissing what she said as it pulled back its paws. It rested them at its sides, staring at her with wonder. Could she recall anything?

"I... I think I was sleeping." She looked unsure, squeezing her hands.

_"Sleeping? For how long?"_ Jeremie's voice echoed in its head again. Staring at the pink elf, the amber eyed feline-human watched as she walked away to face a window in the middle of the room. Following along, the program looked over her shoulder to stare at a blonde with thick glasses, crystal blue eyes and a blue turtleneck shirt. A headset was connected to his face, a microphone positioned near his mouth. The boy couldn't have been older than twelve, if the Daemon had to guess.

Maya pursed her lips, "I-I don't know."

"I might," It walked into viewing sight, beaming at the other blonde. The boy looked surprised at its form, like it had presumed it would look like the pink elf herself, "I have been deactivated for ten years. Maybe she has been as well?"

On the screen, Jeremie placed his hand underneath his chin, _"Most likely,"_ He then squinted at the screen, searching for something else before his eyes went wide in alarm, _"Oh crap! I forgot about school! I'll see you two tomorrow, I promise. Just be careful, alright?!"_ Without another goodbye, the boy ripped off the headset and placed it out of view. He spun in the big chair he sat in before fleeing into what they couldn't see of the big green room with wires along the far walls. Maya raised her hand, carefully dismissing the small screen with just a tap of one of her fingers.

"Will you be staying here?" She wondered, her apple green eyes staring at him.

"I would like to scan the rest of the forest region before I stay in one place," It responded, "Then I will return to this tower and make sure you are safe until Jeremie's return," Walking back to the only exit of the large tower, the feline-human looked back at the pink elf, "I'll see you later, Maya."

She nodded, "Okay." The program smiled at her one last time before phasing through the wall. After taking in the sights of the wonderful view of the big trees and the large blue of the digital sea below, it ran off on all fours.

It had a job to do before it tried to learn about Maya and it couldn't just dismiss the command. After all, it was a program made to do what it was commanded to do. And the only two things that stuck out in its head was simple. One, to make sure no bugs or errors lingered in Lyoko. Two, to locate something on Lyoko that the Professor had ordered to keep safe and make them happy.

It should be simple enough. After all, it couldn't be that hard to find this 'Aelita', now could it?


	2. Sowing A Future

"No issues found at most towers, I still have to check over tower nine..." Roaming through the forest region felt like a dejavu moment. The time it was wandering around this place before didn't feel like it was ten years ago. It only felt like it was at least an hour ago. That's why it was so hard for the Daemon to believe that ten years had went by.

It ran through the large tree trunks, climbed the steps to one of the towers and even fell through a hole to get to a different part of the region. It was simple to find each tower thanks to the map in its head and even with certain obstacles created to bring uniqueness to the world, the Daemon could never say that it hated going through a repeated pattern to get to certain towers. Though, it would weakly agree that it hated that it took _hours_ to get to certain areas of Lyoko. Even with the towers as a way to get to places "faster", the length to get to each tower felt like an eternity.

"No bugs, no errors... at least the shut down did not affect anything as far as the eye can see," It murmured, walking along on its two legs after it got back to the "main route" of the sector, "I can't say the same for all the towers just yet."

Hopefully Maya was fairing well by herself, it would not go back until it finished inspecting _all_ of the Forest Sector. Calculating in its head on where the ninth tower was, it went back on all fours and took off in its run. It was left in its thoughts, which were little bubbles of wonderment like ' _H_ _ow did she get here?'_ and _'Was she something else that the Professor was creating?'_

Those questions lead to the program over-complicating matters while it focused on its main objective. _Where was the Professor? How did Jeremie arrive to maintain control of the supercomputer? And why was the supercomputer shut off in the first place?_

It was caught up in its thoughts that it didn't hear the _click-clank_ of tiny footsteps or the thin, drilling noise of something reloading. Its stomach was directly hit with a laser as the **_pew!_** sound echoed around the empty area. "Ouch!" It cried, rolling around the ground. Its stomach sparked, the data adjusting to the damage dealt by the little cockroach creature that the daemon finally saw in the corner of its eye. "Ugh, you again?" It spat, resting one of its paws on its injured stomach.

The monster drew closer, a red ring beginning to glow on its face, "Not again!" The Daemon shouted, raising its paws to develop its gauntlets. With the six shots of his arrow-launching gauntlet, the creature exploded into red-white bits of data. It grimaced at the destruction, dismissing the gauntlets, "I hate doing that. Why are these creatures attacking me?"

Then, a little thing bubbled in the back of its head after the little fight it entered. Like a little signal went off and it wanted to be answered. Doing so required it to stop moving forward and it soon was standing in the middle of the wide land of the Forest Sector. It placed a hand out at the air and suddenly, a familiar blue screen appeared in front of him. Soon following was Jeremie's triumphant voice saying, _"And what do you call this, huh? A program for spray painting doors?"_ On the screen displayed Jeremie, a bit shorter than last time with another boy. This boy had dark brown hair with chocolate brown eyes, dressed in a green jacket which rested over a tan shirt. It looked like a permanent frown rested on his face, as the boy quirked an eyebrow. In a little square in the corner of the screen, its amber eyes caught sight of Maya who had binary code in the back of her.

 _"Hello there, Jeremie!"_ Maya's voice emitted and the Daemon could see her lips move. _"Oh! And the Daemon too! Nice to see you're fairing well!"_

"Uh," Unable to think of a good response, it responded lamely, "Yes, it is I."

Jeremie's crystal blue eyes gazed at the screen and this time, a giant grin graced his face, _"Oh! I contacted both of you this time! That is great!"_

 _"Who's the girl with the pink hair? And who's the guy with the crazy hair?"_ The brunette questioned, crossing his arms. It was a newcomer, it suspected. It hadn't heard of the boy when Jeremie established contact with it and by the sounds of it, Maya wouldn't know the kid either.

Before the Daemon could introduce itself, Jeremie replied for it, _"The girl with the pink hair is Maya, the cat-kid is the Overwriting Debugging Daemon. They are forms of artificial intelligence's who live on Lyoko. The Daemon is there to repair programming in Lyoko but we don't know what Maya is there for."_

Chocolate eyed boy shook his head, _"Don't mess with me, you programmed them right?"_

Maya immediately denied it, _"No! I woke up the moment Jeremie restarted the supercomputer. I don't know who I am. My memory has been erased."_

"For me, I was deactivated moments before the shutdown of the supercomputer. I was restarted once Jeremie turned the supercomputer back on." The Daemon murmured, placing its paws on its chin. It was tempted to sit down and continue the conversation like that, but if there was one cockroach creature that attacked him then there must be more.

 _"Maya has to hide in some kind of tower. As soon as she leaves it, she gets attacked monsters!"_ It looked like that the monsters weren't just after the Daemon. Grimacing, it replayed the moments before its first shutdown. It looked like _something_ was the cause of their creation, but it couldn't think of it one bit! _"You gotta believe me, Stern! This is an incredible discovery!"_

 _"Let's say it is,"_ Stern replied, walking away. It was hard to see the boy at that point and the Daemon leaned in a little closer to try to get a better view. It didn't help, though, _"What if... what if it's just some kind of giant video game?"_

_ "Then it's a very dangerous game! My robots are programmed just to go fetch a ball! Don't forget they just tried to kill me a little bit ago, you saw that! What's more, the moment they attacked some kind of logo popped up on my computer screen! The same one the monsters have on Lyoko!" _

A bitter laugh left Stern's lips, _"This gets better and better... Do you mean that the virtual thing that attacked Maya-"_

"And me," It decided to comment, "Those creatures attacked me just a bit ago. I guess these guys don't like other AI's."

Stern looked at it, humming thoughtfully as he continued on, " _T_ _hat attacked Maya and Odd, also wants to kill you?"_

 _"That's what it looks like."_ Jeremie confirmed.

The Daemon raised a paw, "Quick question before you go on, Stern. What's odd?"

 _"Well, that's you."_ Stern pointed directly at the screen, _"One, your acronym is O.D.D., that spells Odd. Two, you look like you're part cat and part human. Three, your colors are purple, pink, white and yellow which are weird colors. So, you should be called Odd. By the way, my name isn't Stern. It's Ulrich."_

"Odd," The program tested its name, enjoyment fluttering around in its chest as a warm feeling, "That's a nice name. Better than being called Daemon, I suppose. Also, nice to formally meet you, Ulrich."

Ulrich looked away from the computer to stare at Jeremie, spinning in the computer chair, _"Yeah yeah, what I was saying was that if this is so dangerous then you should shut down the supercomputer and call the police, Belpois."_

 _"Okay,"_ Jeremie agreed, _"But first i want to help Maya understand what she's doing on Lyoko."_

_ "Say what?" _

Jeremie sighed, _"I really want to help her. And if my theory's right, we can materialize both her and Odd right here on Earth."_

Ulrich spun in the chair again, another one of his bitter chuckles escaping his lips, _"Oh that's too much... what makes you think you can?"_

" _Oh you'll see, Stern."_ Jeremie waved it off, turning to fully look at the supercomputer screen again, _"Come on, I'll show you the room below. And as for you two, I'll talk with you later."_ With one last wave, Jeremie severed the connection he originally set up. It was just Maya and it.

 _"So, how far are you with your scans?"_ Maya asked.

Odd thought it over before he replied, "Well, most of its done. All I have to do is check over tower nine and then I can safely say the shutdown has not affected the Forest Sector. It'll be just a bit longer before I meet up with you again. I'll see you later, Maya."

_"Same to you too, Odd."_

The familiar buzz in his chest appeared again and the program found it off-putting that he enjoyed the name so much. It was just a name, after all. Why was it so exciting to hear?

Shaking off the warm feeling, Odd took off on all fours again, "Come on come on... the distance isn't that great," It murmured to itself as a mini-pep talk, "Just a little bit more to the north. One last tower to check. Let's get this over with." Back to work, it went off to track down the ninth tower. It climbed over the large log pieces using its nails, crawled underneath a fallen branch and even slid down one of the tunnels.

A couple of minutes had passed by before it saw something blue in the sky. A bright light blue that it almost didn't see it if the white light behind it hadn't suddenly appeared, "What _is_ that...?" The light blue sketched something out, looking more and more like a person. Odd squinted its eyes, watching as splashes of warm colors decorated the person. The person took form of a boy, one that was becoming familiar to see... "Ulrich?"

Ulrich fell out of the sky, his butt being the first thing to make contact with the chestnut and sandy brown land. Odd took a good look at his form, noting that he wasn't dressed in the green jacket and tan shirt like he was earlier. Instead, he dressed in a kimono that was tied to his waist with a design of a demon on the back, armor on his right arm and knees. His head had a yellow band wrapped around it, tied at the back. His legs were covered in a thin cloth with fiery marks at the bottom edges, the toe cloth colored a lighter shade of grey as they were divided into two with black sandals covering them. He wore an undershirt with black and dark green and very long gloves covered his arms. A small rope wrapped around the bottom part of his waist that held his katana sheathe firmly to his side, "Ouch!" He winced, bringing himself to a stand in a matter of seconds.

Odd waved, "Uh, hello there Ulrich. Nice to see you drop in."

Ulrich looked over the program, then looked at himself, "Yeah... I guess I did drop in. Jeremie! I guess you were right! The virtualization process _does_ work!"

 _"I told you so. Have faith in me."_ Sounding smug, Jeremie's voice echoed from above, _"And look! You've met up with Odd already!"_

"Did you plan for this?" Odd questioned. It didn't know that they had a meeting point set up or else it would have lingered longer in this area instead of pressing on.

The samurai shook his head, "No, he didn't. We got into a bit of a squabble about the supercomputer and the whole virtualization. So he dared me to go into the scanners and prove that it doesn't work. I agreed and well..." He gestured to himself, "Here I am."

"How did you know it'd work, though?"

_"It was more luck than anything. Plus, it's the only code that has really functioned properly so far."_

Ulrich's head whipped up to the sky, "...you didn't know if it'd work or not." He deadpanned.

_"But it did!"_

Pressing fingers to his nose, Ulrich sighed, "Odd, remind me to smack him when he gets me out of here." Odd nodded along, even though it was pretty sure that the little spectacle would be forgotten and put behind them.

Odd took the moment to outstretch its paws, "I guess I can say, welcome to Lyoko!"

Ulrich nodded, "Yeah, thanks for welcoming me..." He then gazed over himself again, smiling lightly as he tugged a katana out of a sheathe, "This is pretty cool!" Odd dismissed the whine threatening to leave its tongue. It didn't need to complain that it didn't have a cool sword like the human, instead it had gauntlets that could shoot six laser arrows. Nobody could say that about themselves, now could they?

As if reading his mind a bit, chocolate brown eyes looked at him, "Do you have a weapon?"

"Yeah," Odd summoned his gauntlets, smiling, "These shoot three arrows per gauntlet. Six arrows at once if I use both hands, pretty neat right?"

 _"Odd, do you mind taking Ulrich to Maya?"_ It would be going out of its way to the _opposite_ direction but... in a way, those were orders. And orders topple over regular commands, as long as the blond wanted them to rule over. Heck, it'd rather ditch the mission than continue on for a while to reach one last tower.

The programmed cat-boy stretched out its back, "I don't mind. Come on Ulrich, we're heading south from here." It didn't go on all fours to speed up the process since it didn't want to leave its new friend behind. Odd lead the way, taking the time to enjoy another presence around it that was actually _human_. The Professor had left his mark on the cat-boy and it wanted something more back then. What it was, the blond could not conclude. It wanted to simply conclude that it was a friend... but could that really ring true? _No quick conclusions,_ It chided itself, _Just let it come together when it wants to._

"So, how long have you been here?" Ulrich asked.

Odd placed its paw underneath its chin again, "Well, I won't count the ten years of deactivation. Technically, I've only been around for about a year with the Professor."

"Professor?"

"Yeah, he was a nice guy. He created me... or at least I think he did." Pressing thin claws to its temple, the Daemon frowned, "Hmm. My memory must be glitched. I cannot recall some of my meetings with him. Must be a side effect of the shutdown."

The samurai fell in step with him, walking next to him, "Do you know what happened to him?"

"All I can remember is that he came here in white orbs," It frowned, "White orbs that played a wonderful piano tune. He asked me to watch over someone named Aelita and make that person happy. It's a secondary mission he assigned and I want to complete it but my main objective takes priorities."

Crossing his arms, Ulrich questioned, "What about Jeremie? Did he issue you any orders?"

"Well," Odd rubbed the back of its neck, flashing a cheeky grin, "I can take whatever he says as an order. Like taking you to Maya. I really dread finding the last tower since its so far away from where you wish to go."

A warm hand clapped on its shoulder, gently squeezing it, "We should finish up your priorities here before you get to Jeremie's. Come on, take me to that tower."

Odd huffed, "Fine." It didn't put up much of a fight against going there since it had company. If Ulrich wanted to go, then it wouldn't stop it. After all, the human was new to this place and chose Odd as a guide rather than listen to Jeremie give a direction to travel. It felt... nice, if the program had to chose a word for it.

Time had flown by after that interaction. Odd didn't count down the minutes it took to get there all because Ulrich asked it questions about the world and it, included. It didn't hold back any information it knew, for having another mind recall something it may forget is better than to lose it forever. In turn, Odd asked about how he met up with Jeremie and what it was like in the real world. One of those questions rested on how Ulrich entered the virtual world.

"Even with him falsely assuring me that he understood the procedure, it was simple, really," Ulrich admitted, "But uh... he talked me into going in. But first, he gave me time to think about it. By then, I ran into trouble in the name of Sissi, she's the principal's daughter that goes to my school. She flagged me down before I got here and well, she's out there with Jeremie right now."

"You two dating?"

"Heck no!" He shook his head, "I don't like her like that! But she likes me like that. It sucks. I keep telling her that I don't like her like that but she doesn't listen to me."

Odd shrugged, "Well, maybe she'll understand some day. You just have to hope."

"Hey, there's the tower!" Ulrich noted and pointed up ahead to where the beautiful blue aura colored the giant, white candle with brown roots. It wasn't much longer that they reached it.

"The outside coding is managing just fine. All in all, the projection is right." Odd placed its paws against the side of the candle, "Now to check inside..." It slid through the false wall, its feet greeting nothing but empty air. It shrieked, snapping his paws out to the platform that was right next to it. Its head began to scream as the bugged code practically flashed in its face, "Oh crap, bugged entrance! Looks like there _is_ a glitch after all- ULRICH!" It shouted as the boy slid in after him, quickly grabbing its legs for safety.

"Is this what you call a bug in the system?!" Ulrich yelled back to him.

"Yeah, and you're far too heavy for me to heave the both of us up- _ah!"_ And so, its claws finally gave out on it. They were sent spiraling into the blackness and since tower nine was a Way Tower, they were heading to a sector that was completely different than the one they were in before. The binary coding guided them, being the light in the darkness as the world continued to move along as if they weren't there.

* * *

Their exit wasn't a phenomenal one. Nor was it horrible. It was only them being spat out onto the cold, blue land of the Ice Sector. Its programming screamed for him to comb over the ten towers here, but that could be finished later, "Are you okay?" It asked Ulrich, seeing the samurai rub his head.

"Yeah, that was pretty scary."

Odd grinned lightly, "Well, that wasn't the right way to travel. At least, we were supposed to go down with a sense of peace and not a sense of panic. That's why it spat us out so quick. The towers want to carry a sense of harmony. They want to be in a world without danger. But uh, this is the Ice Sector. Ten towers here too, but I think we should travel back to the Forest Sector and take you to Maya like I told Jeremie I would."

"So all the towers would be blue for "harmony", right?"

"I guess that would be the right way to think of it." Odd confirmed.

Ulrich gestured up ahead, pointing out a tower that had a crimson aura surrounding it, "Then would that be another bug in the system?"

Its amber eyes scanned over the tower, "From here, I want to say that's a bug. But... in a way, its not. My scans do not protest at that bugged code like they did with the bugged entrance. They won't tell me what's wrong."

"I don't want to alarm you any more, but there are strange creatures heading towards us." Looking over its shoulder, it took note of three creature it hadn't seen before. They were in the shape of blocks, with little red legs underneath connected by cables.

Odd hummed, "Yeah, that's pretty weird too. I think we should go..." It then turned tail and ran as the same sounds from the cockroach creatures sounded began to echo around. _**Pew! Pew pew!**_

"Woah!" Ulrich followed along, running just a bit faster than the program who ran on two legs. The creatures skittered along past them, trapping them in some sort of triangle.

The program groaned lightly, resting on all fours. It summoned its gauntlets as Ulrich drew his katana. The monsters began to shoot at them and Ulrich used his sword to absorb the lasers and Odd summoned a shield to deflect one of the lasers. It was a brawl for their lives, as Odd stood up again and shot its laser arrows at one of the creatures. It spun around, the arrows smacking the sides of the spinning creature.

Ulrich ran off, jumping in the air. He landed on the block creature, trying to stab the monster on top of its head. It didn't work however, forcing the samurai to hop off the creature. He then moved his katana to absorb one last laser heading towards Odd's face, "So, how are we supposed to defeat these creatures?"

"My scans say a weak point is directly where the weird logo is." Odd murmured, pointing both arms at the nearest stationary monster. Their lasers continued to fly at them until one stabbed him directly in its side. It felt that alertness it held disappear as it watched Ulrich stare at it, something akin to horror on the boy's face as everything disappeared into darkness.

* * *

_**...95%...** _

_**...100%...** _

_**Reloading complete. Virtualization process activated.** _

The cold, icy feeling crept up and ate it as it landed on the frozen ground of the Ice Sector. It whipped its gaze around, recognizing that Ulrich wasn't around anymore. Did something happen to him? Was he okay?

It sighed, "Well, I hope he's okay." It couldn't worry about him too much or else it'd worry itself to death.

 _Click-click. Click-click-click._ It tensed, hearing the clatter of the block creatures around it, "Oh come out you big dumb blocks!" It shouted, spinning on its heel. Its gauntlets were summoned as a familiar pink elf shot out of the tower and ran directly into it.

"Oh! Odd!" She gasped, rolling off of it. Odd quickly recovered, shooting down one of the two blocks around the tower. It then aimed its other paw at the last block, trying to ignore the sudden excitement that coursed through him as the creature exploded into bits of data, "You're back!" She stood up, her hand extended out and ready to help it up.

It grinned weakly, "Yup! Back and ready for action, Maya!" It then took in her appearance in the Ice Sector, a sigh escaping its lips, "Though, can you answer why you're here instead of the Ice Sector?"

She pointed to the red tower up ahead, "I need to enter that tower. Can you take me to it?"

Odd nodded, "Yeah, I can." It stood on its two legs, pointing directly ahead as its gauntlets dispersed, "Alright! It's this way, Princess!" They took off and since the ground was basically ice, they began to glide at some points.

_"Hey! Maya, can you hear me? Maya!"_

"Loud and clear, Jeremie! Odd has reappeared and we're heading to the red tower!"

 _"Why did you leave the tower in the first place without us? Are you crazy?!"_ Jeremie sounded upset and the blond silently felt for him. If it hadn't reloaded back into Lyoko, she would have been in major danger.

She panted, "I heard some strange pulsations! I wanted to see what they were! I ran into a bit of a situation but Odd came back in the nick of time and saved me!"

_"Well, I'm sending you two back up just in case! For now, just wait for them please!"_

Odd halted its run and soon reached out a paw to stop Maya from skidding off after they shot out of a tunnel. She smiled weakly at him and they soon found themselves waiting past the icy cavern with a running waterfall. The land was colored a beautiful light blue, with a darker blue barely illuminating the sky. Odd admired this sector because it was so simple but held its own secrets. The Desert Sector had more of a simplicity but the Ice Sector would always have a home in its heart since it was the first sector he was loaded into.

Then, there was the familiar clacking of slim legs hitting the ice, "Oh great," Odd groaned, summoning its gauntlets again as three block creatures surrounded them from all sides, "Looks like its going to be a rough one, Maya."

"Jeremie! We have a bit of a situation!" Maya shouted.

"Hyaah!" The _shing_ of a katana being drawn echoed around, followed by one of the block creatures exploding into bits and pieces of white and red. Ulrich landed, dressed in his samurai outfit.

Odd beamed, "Hey! Ulrich! Nice to see you again!" The second block shot over at the duo and the samurai dashed over, using his sword to absorb the red light.

"No time for greetings, Odd! We got monsters to take care of!" Odd happily agreed, showing its acknowledgement by destroying a block monster with his arrows. Its amber eyes noticed a newcomer, a female dressed up as a geisha. She had raven hair with black eyes, her face was painted white with blush on her cheeks and lipstick dying her lips a ruby red. Her outfit consisted of a beautiful red and black kimono with floral patterns decorating them, with an yellow obi tied around her waist. She had on traditional Japanese sandals, with bandages along her legs and black shorts hidden underneath the top part of the kimono.

She frowned, "Hey, I don't have a weapon." Taking one more look over herself, her charcoal black eyes noticed something hidden between the bow of her obi and the cloth itself. She retrieved it, brandishing a wonderful fan with a light shade of purple and red pant on the inside, "A fan?"

Odd quickly scanned over it, jumping over the lasers of the third as Ulrich used his sword to stop the red lights from touching Maya, "It's programmed as a projectile! Throw it, geisha!"

The fan was thrown, spinning in the air as it gained a white glow. It sliced into the block and split it in half and like its comrades before it, it exploded in bits of data.

Ulrich sheathed his sword, smiling lightly at the girl, "Not bad."

She jumped into the air, catching the fan. As soon as she caught it, she folded it and placed it back in its resting place, "Yeah, I think I'll keep it."

_ "Nice work! Now bring Maya and Odd to the red tower so we can materialize them!" _

"Materialize...?" Odd tilted its head, "You're trying to bring us to Earth?" They all took off running toward the red tower. It hadn't processed what Jeremie had stated to Ulrich earlier in the real world until now. Did Jeremie actually have a plan to bring them into the real world?

_"Yeah! If Maya enters the tower, she may be able to find the code for materialization and then I can bring you two to Earth! Then the supercomputer can be shut down and all of this mess, over!"_

The geisha let out a sigh of relief, "That sounds wonderful."

Odd beamed at the lady, "May I ask who you are?"

"It's Yumi, Yumi Ishiyama."

The Daemon smiled, "I'm the Overwriting Debugging Daemon... but everyone calls me Odd. So, I'm Odd."

Maya waved her hand at the geisha, "And I'm Maya, nice to meet you." She then pointed at Ulrich, "And can I inquire your name?"

"Uh, Ulrich. Ulrich Stern."

_"Um, I hate to break the introductions but Ulrich and Yumi's little friend is coming over to greet me. Where are you guys!?"_

"Tower's dead ahead, Jeremie!" Ulrich responded. The ice crunched underneath each step they took, but thankfully it did not falter or break from their weight.

Jeremie replied, _"Hurry it up then! Things are about to get a bit jumpy over here! Oh! And watch it guys! There are some monsters heading your way, different than those that attacked you earlier!"_ As he mentioned that, two red creatures stepped out of hiding behind the thick ice blocks. They were large in size, as well as colored red from all aspects except its glassy orbs at its face. The way they walked was slightly slanted and it exposed a the same logo that was on the block and cockroach creatures before.

"Their weakness is on top of their shells," Odd automatically relayed, scrambling off to the side to one of the ice blocks. It needed a better height advantage to attack and with its claws it could make an advantage. Its friends split up to their own ways and hopefully were thinking of their own plans as a mean to destroy the crabs. It sprung onto the ice block, noticing that one of the creatures stopped its run and focused on him, "Of course. Come on crabby! Let's party!" The familiar gauntlets formed on its wrists as it began to shoot.

The crab, as big as it was it was graceful as it staggered away from the arrows. It rose a claw, trying to thwack it off the ice, "Not so fast!" It clambered up a bit more, finally causing damage to the big metal creature. As it did, it looked like the crab got tired of it as a red laser slammed into his chest and took away his awareness and replaced it with nothing but darkness.

* * *

_**...95%...** _

_**...100%...** _

_**Reloading complete. Virtualization process activated.** _

Once again, the Ice Sector greeted it with cold, empty arms. Odd landed on the ground with growing grace. It thanked the times before to prepare it for the sudden landing as it stood up and looked around. The ice blocks were familiar, but the crabs didn't linger anymore. It looked over to the tower and took in the appearance that it was blue this time and not crimson. "Looks like Maya got into the tower..." It murmured, plopping onto the ground.

Something tingled in the back of its head, reminding it of the communication that Jeremie established that one time. Immediately, it acknowledged the communication and placed its paw on air. The window appeared and showed him a small room, fit with a bed and decorated with posters and other gizmos. It practically sang of Jeremie's home, or at least his room for wherever he was.

It then took in the fact that Ulrich and Yumi were sitting on the bed, as Jeremie was sitting in a chair a tad bit off screen. It then looked to the side and noticed Maya's little square that held her face. It frowned, tilting its head. Wouldn't Maya be in the real world if she had gone in the red tower?

 _"Nice to see you back, Odd."_ Maya's voice toned in, a sweet one that alerted the humans of his reloading.

"So uh, how'd it go?" It asked, unable to think of something bigger to address.

 _"Well,"_ Jeremie sighed, _"My theory was proven wrong, the materialization program did not appear after Maya entered the red tower. And uh... if you didn't notice, today is now yesterday. I apparently initiated a program that allows the real world to turn back time. I call it, Return to the Past."_

Odd allowed its senses to be enveloped by the supercomputer, then hummed, "Oh, it _is_ yesterday. That's pretty neat," _That could be why time never progressed when the Professor was in charge... did he create that program?_ "But do you not remember initiating it?"

_ "Yeah, I do not remember it. I don't understand why I can't remember it either." _

Yumi hummed and Odd took note that she dressed in all black including a tank top, pants and combat boots, unlike her geisha outfit in Lyoko, _"Maybe that's because you were the only one who didn't get virtualized onto Lyoko."_

 _"Yes, that could be,"_ Jeremie tapped his chin, _"Well tomorrow I'm going to the factory first thing to scan myself and then-"_

 _"No Jeremie,"_ Maya halted his thought process, _"We have to shut down the supercomputer and you know it. It's too dangerous."_

_ "But, Maya-" _

Maya shook her head, wagging her finger as she smiled, _"No, Aelita. When I went into the tower, I remembered my name!"_

"Aelita..." Odd tested it, "I like it. It suits you... and you're the person Professor told me to protect and make happy!"

 _"Make happy?"_ Yumi asked.

 _"Yeah Odd, you only mentioned the Professor,"_ Jeremie muttered, _"Who is he, exactly?"_

"The Professor is well... the Professor," Odd weakly shrugged, "I can't really describe him much more because he was outside the supercomputer all the time. I think he created me, but I know for a fact he assigned me my duty to Lyoko as the Overwriting Debugging Daemon. The last time I saw him was the first time I was deactivated and it was by force all because of the creatures. They were attacking me and he was suddenly there outside a tower in little white orbs. He told me to continue along with the program that is O.D.D. and protect the one he loved from a monster he couldn't stop. He told me to see to it that she is happy in the end."

_"So the Professor knew of my existence?"_

Odd nodded, "He knew and adored you by the words he shared with me. So Aelita, as someone assigned to protect you I have to go against your wishes and state that we should not shut off the supercomputer." It was illogical on all means, but in the end Aelita wouldn't be happy and its coding was screaming at it to keep her happy.

 _"Yeah!"_ Jeremie wholeheartedly agreed with it, _"I promised I'd bring you to the real world!"_ The blond looked over his chair, facing Ulrich and Yumi, _"Give me one more night to work it out, okay? I'll find a way!"_

The program saluted, "And of course, you have a program that worked on codes before on the case as well. I'll help you, Einstein!"

_"Uh, Einstein?"_

A smile made its way on its face, "Yeah. You're a prodigy, much like Albert Einstein was so I decided to nickname you Einstein, much like you all address me as Odd."

Ulrich and Yumi exchanged glanced on the bed, ignoring the little chat the two blond's were having before Ulrich smiled and replied, _"Okay."_

Jeremie beamed, _"Thanks guys."_

Both fighters stood up from the bed as Ulrich made the meeting, _"We'll meet tomorrow morning in the supercomputer room to see how you're doing."_ With that, the small meeting was dismissed and thus began the nightly research of Lyoko.

* * *

_"Hi!"_ Yumi's voice echoed over the communication tab and Odd crossed its arms as it peered into the screen that showed both humans settling around the blond sitting in the chair. The program was situated in a tower in the Desert Sector since it went over each sector to see if it could find a new piece of data that could explain to it what the creature in the world was, _"Find anything?"_

 _"Yes,"_ Jeremie confirmed, _"XANA."_

Ulrich's settled frown grew a bit deeper, _"XANA? What's that?"_

_"A super dangerous program! Like a virus that can control electricity and it activates towers on Lyoko to gain access to your world!"_

_"So the red tower, the electricity monster, the weird symbol, the monsters on Lyoko... all of that was XANA?"_

_"Yes it was. Only Aelita can counter it by deactivating the tower that it uses for attacks in the real world."_

Ulrich sighed, _"Well, that's good. But what about materializing both Aelita and Odd?"_

Jeremie looked down, _"I can do it, but I need some time. It's dangerous, XANA can attack at any moment."_

 _"Be reasonable Jeremie,"_ Aelita responded from her own part of the screen, _"We better just shut this thing down."_

Odd decided to be the voice of reason for this one, "But we can still press forward and find a way to get you out. We know a way to counteract XANA and that's you, Aelita. So long as we get you to the activated tower, XANA won't stand a chance against us... well, if you two won't mind helping us." It addressed to both Yumi and Ulrich, wondering what they would choose in the situation. Would they help Jeremie, or would they encourage him to shut it down. At this moment, the decision rested on both of them.

Ulrich grinned, _"So we know how to neutralize XANA, like Odd said. We can counteract its attacks that way and have Jeremie work on a way to get the both of you out of the supercomputer."_

He shared a glance with Yumi and the geisha's straight face melted away into a smile, _ "It's risky, but I think we should."_

 _"You really think you can do it?"_ Aelita asked.

Jeremie chuckled, _"Odd wouldn't call me Einstein for nothing."_

Odd waved, "Plus, with my help we can figure out what works and what doesn't! Don't worry Aelita, soon enough you'll be out of the supercomputer and this mess will all be over with!"

Ulrich gave it some sort of look, one that it didn't understand, _"And don't forget yourself, idiot. You're getting out of there too."_

"Aelita is a bigger priority than me at the moment," Odd replied. It tried to ignore the warm feeling that overcame it and soon enough, it was gone, "So lets focus on that. Then we can get me out, okay?"

 _"Don't worry. In a few weeks, Aelita should be out of there and Odd will follow suit. Now let's not forget our pact, huh?"_ Jeremie looked over to Yumi and Ulrich with a strange glint in his eye.

Yumi snorted, _"Relax, we know how to keep a secret."_ The trio began to laugh and Odd, clueless to the situation at hand, looked over at Aelita's screen. The pink elf shrugged, a small smile on her lips and the Daemon chuckled lightly. It was going to enjoy these new people... and maybe, _just maybe,_ it could figure out what it was missing all that time from back then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	3. A Dilemma That Mocks You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of Cruel Dilemma re-told for the series.
> 
> Also, mentions of Teddygozilla and Big Bug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one shall tell me this episode does not deserve to be edited to fit in this series. Heck, fight me on it. Also, I am trying to get to updating this frequently but it will take time so thanks to those who stick by this series as it updates. I do have plans, I swear. Two more chapters before we hit "Season Two" for the series. Now, I hope you all enjoy this and thank you for reading.

Odd was tired.

Scratch that, programs weren't able to feel 'tired'. It was, for the lack of better words, depleted. All because of the months that came with fighting XANA, saving the real world, and making a materialization program to bring Aelita and it to the real world. Back before its first devirtualization, Odd thought that the world would forever be without danger. But then again... crap, it couldn't remember where it was going with this argument.

That was the kicker, its memory banks were bugged and it absolutely  _did not_ want Jeremie or Aelita tampering with its codes. It knew Jeremie could access them without its permission, but it was glad Jeremie respected it enough to leave them be. If its memories did not want to come back to it for it to recall, then it'd let them remain lost in the many codes that made up his digital incarnation.

Stretching out on the cold, light blue of the ice in the Glacier Sector, Odd let its claws skim the newest program that Jeremie was coming up with. Their idea of working together to make the materialization program was really a "take turn" type of thing. Jeremie worked on the basics, Odd would check up on his math then let him go at it again, and it would repeat until Jeremie would declare it done and try it out in the "testing" program. Then it would flop and they'd be back at stage one. Common to happen every week since Jeremie refused to let Odd try making its own starting code because the last time it happened Odd bugged up Jeremie's computer because it tried to connect to it itself instead of remaining in Lyoko's network.

Grumbling under its breath at seeing Jeremie taking  _another_ break on the code, it instead dismissed the panel that connected to the little "room" that connected Jeremie's computer to Odd's program scanner. It then moved on to connecting to the outside world's "television" as Yumi called it, and entertained itself for a bit watching a lady and a man argue about something in their apartment. For awhile, Odd let itself close its eyes while the sound of voices lulled it to a sense of peace.

Time slipped by it until a little  _blip_ reached Odd's ears which made its eyes open. By then the show was airing the credits and it quickly shut off the channel, allowing it to be enthralled with something that became a daily ritual after XANA's attack with a giant teddy bear.

It was... weird, figuring this part out. It could connect to other things  _outside_ of the supercomputer, other than Jeremie's computer or the stations that played human television. Aelita couldn't do what it did, so Odd decided not to do this around her. But Yumi, Jeremie, and Ulrich knew it could connect to other small devices such as phones and little gaming toys (Yumi was not pleased to have her game of "Tetris" interrupted, whatever that was). Which is why Ulrich took it upon himself to call it every day to give it a "daily update" on things outside of the supercomputer and outside of Jeremie's perspective (even though Aelita was usually the one only treated to that, but the Daemon did not care for it).

"This is the one and only Odd speaking!" Odd chirruped, even though if someone had the  _gall_ to compare it to that it'd delete something off their special communication device, "State your name and business to the microphones please!"

 _"Come on Odd, you know who it is,"_ Even though his voice sounded annoyed, Ulrich wasn't. His voice always had that sort of baritone that hid his feelings well, though with the time it came to know the samurai Odd could always pick out the human's emotions when it heard him (never when it could see him though, and that was certainly an annoyance).

Odd rolled over onto its stomach, yawning lightly, "Fine fine, hello babe! How's the fun life?" Ulrich sounded like he was choking on something, that certainly caught its attention as it began looking at the little hologram screen that displayed Ulrich's avatar card, "Are you okay?"

" _Never, and I mean_ ** _never,_** _call me that nickname."_

"...so you  _wouldn't_ like he calling you honey-bun, sugar plum, sweetie, or dandelion?"

Ulrich groaned,  _"Where did you even get the idea that those were suitable nicknames in the first place?"_

Odd grinned, baring his canines at the hologram, "Well, I was doing my human research and apparently you people have these other nicknames you fondly call each other. There was a list of them so I decided to try them on you!"

_"Odd, those are nicknames couples use on each other."_

Learning a new word today, the cat-program immediately summoned another screen to search up this word. It hadn't ran into the word when it was searching for other nicknames to call its friends, so why did Ulrich classify it as 'couple' nicknames? "What's a couple?"

The word popped up on its screen right as Ulrich replied,  _"A couple is two people madly in love with one another. An example would be Jeremie and Aelita."_  There were  _many_ definitions of the term, but one of them sort of matched what Ulrich was trying to convey. So it wasn't a made up word after all.

"And like you and Yumi?" It voiced innocently, another one of Ulrich's choking sounds responding to its words. Man, it was on a roll with them today. Usually Ulrich would only make one of those sounds a daily call.

" _ **Not** like me and Yumi. Don't go comparing us like that, Odd. I mean it."_

Odd waved its paws in the air, trying not to instinctively summon its shield, "Fine, fine, fine. I won't do that." It then decided to give them a small bit of silence. They needed that to recover from how the conversation immediately went downhill before Ulrich got to his normal 'retelling' story. "So, how was today?" It was the usual phrase said in their little talks. As were two other sentences, but as the talks usually headed down the same path as they usually did (not counting earlier, of course) then Odd would soon be hearing those sentences again.

 _"The usual."_  Ah, there was the first sentence. Ulrich never really rattled on about school at Kadic and Odd didn't push. When the materialization program was completed, the Daemon was sure it'd be receiving the information for it then,  _"Then there was the change in pace with Sissi."_

"Change in pace" was the usual phrase for the program Jeremie dubbed "Return to the Past". Ulrich didn't like continuously referring to it as that, so he rephrased it. Odd liked the re-phrase and it stuck between them as a common sentence since XANA attacking the real world was now always common, "How'd that go down?"

 _"Instead of grabbing the Ghost out of its hiding hole, I managed to get Herve to be bait and avoid getting detention."_  Now  _that_  was a new phrase he hadn't heard of. Maybe another one of those "school backstories" that it hadn't heard of before?

"The Ghost?"

Ulrich hummed,  _"Guess I never told you about it. The staff at Kadic refer to a small creature causing havoc at the school as a 'ghost'. In reality, its just some grey-haired mutt that hides out in the boy's dormitory. Always changes rooms, nobody ever catches it and keeps it settled in one room. I got lucky."_

Odd leaned forward, intrigued with this new information. It had to learn what a 'mutt' was, but it wouldn't interrupt the story with that sort of question. It'd be on its "finding definitions" list, "How so?"

_"It likes potato chips and I just so happened to leave a half eaten one in my garbage can. Caught it munching on them and saved it from running out with a bag on its head. So I made it repay the favor and used it to play a prank on Sissi. She then turned me in to the principal after I didn't apologize and I nearly didn't have time to make it back to you guys to help with the fight on Lyoko."_

"That explains it then." It placed its head on top of its paws, looking around at the icy platforms around it, "Anything else happen?"

A yawn took over the line, follow by Ulrich's weary,  _"Nope."_

Deciding to end their conversation for Ulrich's 'sleep schedule', Odd waved at the hologram, "Well, it was a good talk. I'll speak with you tomorrow, Ulrich."

 _"Same to you, Odd."_ The line disconnected, leaving Odd with the silence of the blue sector. Without sounds to distract it, there were two options it could do. It could go seek out Aelita and speak with her, or it could go through its list and define those words it didn't have a clue about. It then decided to pick option two because it had all the time in the world to speak with the pink-haired elf, but there wasn't enough time left to figure out the real world before they're suddenly shoved into it.

"Now, to figure out what the word "ghost" is..."

* * *

Back in a tower for the usual "Materialization Program" plotting, Odd lazily stared at the screen in front of it. Jeremie was back at it again with editing the codes he left in the "chat" last night, muttering under his breath at some of the mistakes nighttime-Jeremie made. Aelita was also in the conversation, though her presence was not exactly around the Daemon. She was back in the Forest Sector for the day, taking her sweet time to explore the place she woke up in (sometimes it'd be a little jealous since it couldn't find a good pastime in that anymore) before Jeremie established connection and lead them to talking about the program here.

 _"Just a couple of calculations to go and the materialization program will be completed!"_  Another one of those "repeated" phrases Odd heard of these days. One that always sparked a flare of something in its chest and all it wanted to do was shut down the screen in front of it and scream. But it didn't. Instead, it watched Aelita interact with the other blonde and wondered how she was so  _hopeful_ in this type of situation.

Odd usually wasn't a downer about the creation of the materialization program. But today, of all days, it was just... depleted. Once again using that word because it didn't want to classify itself as 'tired', the program laid its head on its paws and watched from the ground,  _"Do you really think it's going to work, Jeremie? Do we have a chance to be in the real world and be somebody like you?_ _"_

Jeremie munched on colorful disks, reminding Odd that humans do consume little edibles for their systems to digest and use as 'fuel' for the human body, " _I sure hope so. Anyway, there's one thing I'm sure of is that I've never been as close to the answer as I am now."_

"As  _we_ are now," Odd repeated softly to itself, dismissing the communication system between the three. It then stared at the code "room", carefully going over each and every bit of code Jeremie entered. It looked stronger than any other code Jeremie tried, Odd would admit that much to the blonde. But it was still... missing something. It couldn't identify what, nor go over the materialization codes that Ulrich and Yumi possess to compare it to Aelita's. Those codes were in the "restricted" area of the supercomputer, another thing Jeremie could only access. But 'Einstein' had a point to not touch those codes or else they may mess up the other's materialization back into the real world.

After staring at the screen again, it quickly caught on that Jeremie gave up again. It draped a paw over the screen, deciding for once to throw caution out of the window. Its claws sank into the panel and Odd let out a shaky laugh as  _something_ came to it. "That's what it is!" It let the newly rewritten codes simmer around with one another, unknowing of the consequences of messing with the newest draft of the materialization codes.

That is, until Jeremie's yell somehow reached it when it  _dismissed the screen,_ " _Odd, you creepy program!_ "

It jerked back, claws changing from a bright white to the color of purple on its fur, "What is it, Einstein?"

" _What have I told you about connecting to my computer? There's months of work in there and now they could be all bugged up with random viruses! Ugh, now it's all bugged and-"_  Jeremie went quiet, like he was brooding over the program's mess.

Odd let its claws gently scrape on the floor of the tower, a weird feeling washing over it. Was that what humans call "guilt"? It had to research that later. But first, "I-I'm sorry Jeremie. It's just, I thought I could help out. So I let myself at the codes without thinking of the consequences."

 _"That's crazy!_ " It sounded like Jeremie was thinking about something  _other_ than his wrecked computer, which confused it, " _This is really insane! Odd, look!_ " The little code "room" gained access to the "testing" program. Its amber eyes watched as the diagram of Aelita began to fill up, which meant  _materialization_. It started to laugh because its mistake actually  _helped them_ for once, " _You're a brilliant program, you know that Odd?_ "

Odd couldn't help the small smile on its lips, "Am I a creepy program, or a brilliant program?"

_"You're a creepily brilliant program! What codes did you change?"_

Now that was a question even it couldn't answer. "I don't actually know," It admitted slowly, wincing, "It just sort of... came to me, when I entered your computer."

Jeremie hummed,  _"Well, maybe your primary objective scanned over my codes and reformatted them to fit together properly with the new codes you added in. I can't create a second one like this but..."  Will you let Aelita come to Earth first _were the words left unspoken.

Odd, not caring too much about the real world as Aelita was, wholeheartedly agreed, "Of course, Jeremie. We can spend a bit more time on mine later. Let her be the one to taste Earth's oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, and methane!"

 _"That's great, that's really really great! I'll let the others know after I get a hold of Aelita. We'll meet up again later!"_ Odd listened to Jeremie's chair spin after the boy probably spun around in it with glee. It took a few minutes to realize that it was still connected to Jeremie's computer while it heard him conversing with Aelita without hearing her replies. That certainly explained why it heard him when the connection panel was not opened. It readily took its leave out of Jeremie's computer, trying to give him a little privacy with his words even though it heard some of it and it decided to agree with Ulrich that Jeremie and Aelita were certainly a couple.

* * *

Yumi shook her head, saying that it wasn't a good idea. Odd huffed, watching from its screen as the gang conversed about Aelita's materialization. Why wasn't it a good idea?

_"Yumi, it's now or never. We may not get a second chance at this. What if there's some kind of bug? I'll never be able to set up the program again!"_

She held out a hand, likely trying to stop Jeremie from continuing his line of thought,  _"Listen. You can't just materialize Aelita just like that without making a lot of preparations."_

Jeremie jumped onto her words, trying to prove his point,  _"I boosted up the scans, I have the program going, everything's ready!"_

Ulrich rolled his eyes, playing around with the comic in his hands. He must have been reading it before they came together to talk about this,  _"Yeah, in your head. Come down to earth, Jeremie. Be practical for once. Aelita has no parents, she doesn't have a birth certificate, what's more she's not enrolled at any school-"_ He then raised his hands in a placating manner,  _"Okay, that's no biggie. But, all that together means she doesn't exist in our world. Imagine introducing her to anyone else that isn't us. "Hello, I'm Aelita. I come from a virtual world". That would land her in the nut house for sure."_

Odd hummed, the brunette did have a point with that. "Aelita would need a cover story. Suddenly coming from a random place without explanation can cause some suspicion. And if people start looking into the fact... I would assume she'd get interrogated and worse comes to worst, the supercomputer will be found."

 _"Both of you need a cover story before we can introduce you to the real world, yeah."  _Ulrich agreed,  _"Basically the whole point, Jeremie. We haven't made a cover story for Aelita, nor Odd if you wanted to change it up."_

Aelita softly sighed in her screen,  _"Jeremie, it doesn't have to be today. I can wait."_

Jeremie covered his face, groaning,  _"Okay, so what do we do now?"_

Taking over the conversation, Yumi gestured to herself,  _"I can put her up at my house, my folks wouldn't mind."_

_"And you could plug into the city hall computers and create a false identity for her! Figure out a new name, all the stuff she needs to legally exist! Then you have to enroll her at our school. Simple as that!"_

'Einstein' stared at him computer screen, longingly looking at Aelita's part of the screen. Odd flashed a weak smile, trying to figure out its own way to cheer the glasses wearer up, "Come on Jer, it'll be a little longer before she's out there in the flesh with you all."

_"...okay. We'll get started first thing tomorrow."_

* * *

Listening to the squabbling voices on another one of the human's "television" shows, Odd distracted itself from the continuous prod at the back of its head. That came from Jeremie initiating another talk with Aelita, a common occurrence during the nighttime. If it stretched out it senses, it could tell that a few hours passed from the latest nightly call it received from Ulrich. Which meant that Jeremie arose in the middle of the night, probably excited to see Aelita in the real world.

Odd performed one of its usual actions of resting its head on its paws, closing its eyes and listening to the male try to speak to the woman. He failed at explaining a situation that really shouldn't have became one. The humor was lost on the program and maybe if it had someone around it to explain, maybe then it'd find the shows "funny".

A sigh left its lips as it tried to, once again, drift away from reality to the sounds of the voices. Then, the familiar little  _blip_ reached its ears. It immediately took the call, chirping, "Welcome to Odd's Delivery, home of the cooked chicken and fries!" It then frowned, "Huh, I thought that one would be good. I need to practice my human slogans a bit more-"

 _"Odd!"_ Ulrich sounded wide awake, strange since the supercomputer's time read three in the morning.  _"Now's not the time for one of your bad jokes-!"_

"Hey!"

_ "-XANA's attacking! You have to get to Aelita, quick!" _

Now that was a surprise. XANA never usually attacked twice a week. Maybe the thing was learning from its mistakes and trying to run the humans to the ground with tiredness? It couldn't assume that immediately, but it was a conclusion, "Understood! See you on Lyoko!" It dismissed the call, thrusting itself off the edge of the tower platform it had been on for the past few hours now.

As soon as it stepped into the waves of code, it deposited it right where it wanted to be. It gleefully took off in the Forest Sector, its scans alerting it of Aelita's presence in the area. It ran on all fours, making sure not to be slow since it did not know where Jeremie or Yumi were at the time. Most likely heading to the factory right now or something else.

Aelita's voice reached its ears, forcing it to halt its run, "Hello, Odd!" She chirped, waving a hand at him.

The Daemon grinned and stood up, performing a little bow in return, "Nice to see you, Princess."

"You're looking a bit stressed." She noticed its depleted self and Odd loathed how quick she was to see it. Would Ulrich and Yumi notice it quickly too? Or was it just the other program?

It waved a paw at her, shaking its head, "No, I'm okay Aelita. Just don't know what creatures are lurking around once a tower is activated."

She shook her head with a little smile, likely seeing through its lie, "Come with me, the tower's this way."

Forcing a bit of cheer in each of its steps, it followed along willingly, "Okay, let's check it out!" After those words, they took off in their usual sprint. Odd summoned its gauntlets mid-run, preparing for any sneak attack if it should come. Aelita continued to look left and right sometimes, expressing her own caution at what monsters XANA could suddenly throw at them.

They reached the cross section of the Forest Sector, allowing the avatars to choose which way to go in the large green area. Aelita pointed to one that rippled with red coding (coding that screamed  _danger danger danger_ now that Odd knew what to associate it with), "That way." She uttered, pointing the way where the red ripples traveled.

And as if knowing they were drawing closer to the tower, little  _click clacks_ snapped around them. Odd looked left and right, seeing the little Kankrelats make their way towards them. Five of them, in fact, "Talk about a reception committee." The program grumbled, lowering itself to the ground slowly. The gauntlets whirred softly, speaking to it to let it know that it had nine in one arm and three in the other. It then tried to recall what it shot at with its gauntlets and remembered the Blok and Krab from earlier the other day that tried to approach it in the Ice Sector, "And they're at full strength too."

 _"And you're not, Odd. You're at sixty life points already! What happened?"_ Jeremie's voice spoke up in its ears and it winced.

"Well, I threw myself a party in the Ice Sector just a day ago." It decided to be honest for one, shooting down one of the Kankrelat that decided to interrupt the conversation before it really started, "Went as well as you can imagine!" It yelped as one of the many lasers got it straight in the chest, making it flop on the ground. It groaned quietly before jumping back up again and devirtualizing that little annoying robot as well.

Aelita looked over at it worryingly, being cautious enough to go close to one of the trees attached to the elevated floor. She didn't voice her concerns about it, but Jeremie sure did,  _"I thought we had the conversation of staying in the towers, Odd."_  He sounded exasperated, Odd could understand because this was the third time it was getting scolded for it. Thankfully Ulrich hadn't told Jeremie that it  _had_ to follow orders, and if Jeremie ordered it Odd would have to obey.

"We did?" It winced at Aelita getting shot because of it jumping to evade another laser. The three Kankrelat were quite angry with them, as per the usual, "I can't exactly recall that happening."

 _"Odd!"_ Jeremie scolded right as another Kankrelat got a lucky shot and downed it again. It muttered under its breath that  _now wasn't the time_ but of course 'Einstein' didn't hear it,  _"We can dispute about this later. Right now your mission is to protect Aelita, remember?"_

"I'd like to see you here fighting these little monsters!" It protested, deciding that eliminating all the little monsters at once just wasn't worth it. It grabbed Aelita's hand and took off down the route towards the activated tower. The Kankrelats followed along hastily, trying to shoot them down and/or catch up to them. Maybe it was both. Odd didn't want to think that one over. But if Odd tried to turn around, then they'd surely gun it down since its life points were down to twenty. Two more hits and it'd be out for awhile. "Jeremie, I'm starting to get a little lonely out here!"

Jeremie responded,  _"Okay Odd, Yumi's on her way. As for Ulrich, let's just say he's fast asleep."_

Puzzled by the new information, it tilted its head to the side, "Sleeping? Why would he be sleeping at a time like this?"

 _"...I'll explain it to you later."_ Jeremie dismissed the conversation, leaving the program wondering what clue it was missing to really understand what Jeremie meant. It had to look that up later, for sure, " _But for now Odd, you have to figure out a way to slow down those Kankrelats! You're way ahead of Yumi!"_

Calculating the best course of action, Odd gestured to the area up ahead, "You take care of the tower, Aelita! I'll take care of the Kankrelats!" It slid along the flooring, using the nearest tree as means of a shield. Aelita continued her run but the monsters wanted it for sure, as they didn't continue to chase after her. "Okay okay, three Kankrelats and..." The gauntlets whirred to him again, "Six left in my left, three in my right. Alright Odd, no time for miscalculations and misfires!" It gave itself a pep talk, spun around the tree and shot at the Kankrelats. Two of them flung themselves away and the third exploded from the arrows impact.

It grinned brightly, "Alright, two waves left. Two Kankrelats left. Perfect." It took off on its two legs, flinging itself over a rock as the Kankrelats tried to shoot it down. They managed to get its tail, leaving it with ten life points. The familiar  _click clacks_ alerted Odd of a Kankrelat trying to sneak up on it. It wriggled its tail with a whistle and quickly jumped out of its hiding place and shot it. "Good, good! That's it for you-"

_Someone's screaming. A body flying down a giant hole with little logs sticking out from it. It was Yumi's scream, and she was falling. Odd tried to reach out, do something ( **anything** ) but could only watch as she fell._

_No no no, someone else was screaming to as a bright light illuminated where she once was, "_ _YUMI, NO!_ **_"_ ** _It sounded like Ulrich, and from where it was standing(?) it could see him staring down at the whole with wide eyes, his hand outstretched for something (or **someone** )._

The trees of the Forest Sector found their way back into its sight, the vision of the hole long gone as Odd yowled loudly,  _" **YUMI!"**_ It didn't even notice the Kankrelat charging a laser in front of it, for the worry overcame the logic that there was an enemy right in front of it. It felt the empty sensation gnaw at him as the creature in front of it exploded due to a fan. Then there was nothing left but pitch blackness and somewhere in it was a _childish laugh_.

* * *

_**...95%...** _

_**...100%...** _

_**Reloading complete. Virtualization process activated.** _

As it landed on the mossy ground that was the Forest Sector, Odd took a few seconds to comb over its recent memories. After that, it turned away from the direction the tower was most likely at (and where Yumi must have went and was now  _gone gone gone_ ) and fled the opposite direction. It didn't dare try to feel for anyone trying to contact it, nor look for the flash of pink that would stick out like a sore thumb in any sector.

Running from its problems, now that was something the program never thought it would do. Though, it wasn't exactly  _its_ problem (it  _was_ and it knew it well) to deal with, the Daemon only entered the next tower and went somewhere that wasn't filled with memories of recent. That left the Mountain and Desert Sectors and it took its chances with either one.

The orange-yellow sand of the Desert Sector greeted it as it ran out of the tower, not caring to search up its own map to locate a safe place for the time being. It just wanted to get rid of the strange energy that was turning its body inside out. It took approximately thirty minutes before it would stop running around on all fours and now, it was just walking. It had passed by a total of four towers during its run and it calculated that the next tower would lead him to the Ice Sector, so it decided to continue to avoid that one as well (the one where they first met, the one where they fought and  _won_ ).

It was another fifteen minutes before it finally plopped on the ground and allowed its communication systems to go online. The little  _blips_ were familiar, telling it that the phones were connected to the tower and that they were all active. Jeremie's, Ulrich's and... Yumi's. But that can't be right, because the humans always leave with their cellular devices to head into Lyoko. That means that if Yumi was gone, then her phone wouldn't be around.

Confused, it took to calling up the other person that saw her fall. Ulrich was the human that saw her fall and screamed for her, Ulrich was the human that wanted to be a  _couple with her_  even if he didn't want to admit it. He had to be the voice of reason. So it allowed itself to let the call go through and waited for the human to answer.

And so the samurai did, albeit wide awake even though the time read four in the morning (a return to the past occurred when it devirtualized, it hadn't been aware of it until now),  _"Nice to see you woke up again, Odd."_

 _Is she alive_ was on the tip of its tongue. But it then recalculated its actions and decided for something more... humane, "Are you okay?"

 _"...what?"_ Sounded like Ulrich didn't expect it saying that.

"You saw her fall too," Going with whatever it thought of, it pressed forward, "I wasn't okay after I got back. I ran around for awhile so I'd calm down. You had to have took it worse than I did, considering your feelings for her."

 _"H-Hey! I don't-"_  Ulrich sighed, like he couldn't bring himself to argue with the program. Good.  _"Odd... she's alive. Jeremie used the materialization program to bring her back. Aelita wanted him to to do it, so he did."_

"That's good." Odd nodded to itself. It planned to give the geisha a call after this one. But first, "You didn't say you're okay, Ulrich. From my experience, I can try to multiply it by two and guess that you are not okay."

Another one of Ulrich's tired sighs met its ears,  _"Odd, how did you see her fall?"_  There were two meanings to it, so Odd answered both.

"I never explained it since the big thing with the teddy bear, but I can get small glimpses of the future. The Professor called it Anticipation, told me that it would come to me if I'm stressed or worried about something. At least, that's what I think I remember." It shook its head, choosing not to go down that route, "But I call it Future Flash. But when I saw her fall... she was screaming, but she sounded like she accepted it. That she knew it was going to happen either way. You, on the other hand, screamed like you were harmed physically because of that. Both of you were hurt because of that experience... and I guess I was hurt too. Just not as bad as you two."

 _"When I saw her fall, I thought..."_  Frustrated, the boy must have been looking for the right words,  _"I thought that was the end for her."_

Practically  _feeling_ the lie, Odd called him out, "Try again, Ulrich."

 _"I thought... that was the end of my world. Our world. Our time together."_  Ulrich's next sigh was muffled, likely rubbing a hand over his face,  _"I don't want to lose her, Odd."_

"Then don't." It replied softly, bringing its paws to rub at its elbows. Checking over the time once again, it knew that Ulrich likely had classes in the morning and it was very close to that, "I'm letting you go. Get some sleep while you still can."

 _"Alright, see ya Odd."_  Odd dismissed the screen, stretching out on the desert ground. For once, it didn't need the sounds of people arguing over something petty to lull it into a sense of security. After making sure it'd remember to call Yumi in the morning, it allowed itself to drift and calculate the lands of Lyoko so its friends would never fall into the digital sea ever again.


	4. Standard Zones Aren't Meant to be Tampered With

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of Zero-Gravity Zone written for the story's purposes.
> 
> With added mentions of: Cruel Dilemma (referred to), The Trap (referred to), Laughing Fit (referred to), and Claustrophobia (referred to).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It may look like I'm skipping a lot of episodes, and I kind of am. Those episodes don't make a huge impact to the timeline, but episodes that do will be mentioned if they don't make any actual appearances. Also, I know that Ulrich is playing soccer but in Europe football is soccer and American Football is regular Football. In this story, I will refer to it as the series refers to it. So yeah, Ulrich plays football. I will also like to mention I am starting a new trend. We have a Yorkshire-British!Theo in the story... and well, you can guess who else will be British when the time comes.
> 
> By the way, I am trying to use old elements left over from Season One and mix it with the series. So, if you're not sure where some things have came from, I do mention them in the notes as "referred to" or "mentions".
> 
> Also, I'm waiting for that comment that theorizes this series and how it'll go down for Season Two. Guess all you like! And thanks for reading!

_"...at least, that's what I think."_

Odd hummed, laying on the ground of the Desert Sector. It had been at least a couple of months since the "One Year Anniversary" for Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremie meeting Aelita and the purple program. Right now, it was taking its sweet time to enjoy a conversation with Yumi as she walked to school. Back then, they had a talk about her fall and now, it had to guess they were a little bit closer than before. Close enough to engage in morning calls similar to the night calls it would have with Ulrich.

Back to the topic they were on, Yumi was discussing some of the latest human "gossip" in her class. Apparently she was a grade higher than Ulrich and Jeremie and so she had different classes than them, "I see, I see." It nodded, though it didn't quite understand the whole rumor with this girl named Emily. It wouldn't ask Yumi for more clarification, however, since she approached the topic hesitantly and it showed that she didn't like to think of it either. So it took it upon itself to change the subject, "Alright, so how's the family?" It asked, clapping its paws together.

 _"Way better than before,"_  Hopefully she was smiling, her voice gave that much for Odd to estimate. Its tail twitched behind it and a smile grew on its face. It was uncontrollable, the feeling of giddiness. Sometimes it wondered how emotions were so contagious,  _"I guess they got some sort of surprise to show me. I won't be back home until after the game though. And Jeremie and I will let you know how that goes."_

Ah, she was talking about Ulrich's football game. It would not disclose a secret it had for that. Because it  _will_ be watching the game, through the little reporter's cameras. Ever since Ulrich offhandedly mentioned it one night, it investigated using the electrical sockets and kind of... broke it. It was fine after the little girl reset it and now Odd's codes resided in the machine. It could see through it if it summoned up a screen, but if it did that then the camera would lose charge faster. So it would only summon it if needed, or if it wanted to watch something happen out of it.

For now, Odd does not want them to know about it. It'd be its little secret. Maybe it'd let Aelita in on it, but for now it was its secret alone. Plus, everyone has secrets. Right? "Ah, okay." It let its claws scrape against one another, trying to hide its bluff, "Let me know how it goes in the first half and second half, okay?"

 _"That's perfectly fine."_  Yumi agreed,  _"So I'll let you go now- ah!"_

Odd jumped, its eyes darting away from the hologram with Yumi's avatar card to look around the dusty orange-yellow sand, "What's going on? Are you okay, Yumi?" It asked worriedly. She was still crying out, like something had attacked her. Oh how it suddenly longed to be the real world, to be able to help her. To be able to see her to see what was going on.

Yumi stopped her cries of surprise, abruptly ending the call with,  _"Uh, I have to go. Talk to you later Odd."_

Then that was that. Even if the Daemon wanted it  _not_ to end like that.

* * *

_"Yes Jeremie,"_ Aelita answered softly,  _"There's an activated tower in the Mountain Sector."_

Odd clapped its paws together, "I'll be right there after this, Aelita." It replied joyfully, trying to somehow get rid of the dark clouds over Ulrich's head. Well, not really. Figuratively, if that's how humans use the term. It tried to act happy, trying to get those emotions to be conveyed through the screen. If it could somehow smile at someone's voice, then it had to work on other people as well.

They had met up and after Jeremie and Yumi retold the stories from their perspectives (apparently Yumi started to float and Sissi, the girl that chased after Ulrich like a lost puppy to its owner, had her baton drift away into the atmosphere) they had to figure out the best course of action. And the program knew it wasn't going to be good since Ulrich  _really_ wanted to play this football game. He had his reasons to play and not save the world.

Parents were... touchy subjects, to Ulrich and Yumi. It didn't have a clue about Jeremie's family however, but the two constants gave it enough data to conclude that families were weird. Ulrich's family didn't really pay attention to him and would get upset with him if he didn't do something impressive to stand out from the rest. And since the secret of the supercomputer cannot be divulged nor ignored, Ulrich cannot really stand out because of it. Ulrich simply wanted to impress his parents, and with this football game he could actually do it. That's why Odd chose to mess with the little lady's camera. So it could be there in spirit for the boy who wanted to impress his world, which was his family and friends.

And Yumi? Her folks have been having heated arguments lately, past the morning calls that Odd started with her after she fell. It has been around long enough to try to make its own conclusions, and they weren't very pretty. It wouldn't share with Yumi what it hypothesized, but it will continue to accept morning calls just to talk with her and make up something to make her smile. Yumi wanted her parents to start smiling again, as they apparently did not smile much anymore. So when they expressed a surprise to their daughter, it knew that Yumi would have dropped everything to go home on time. But she wouldn't abandon her friend's football game because she cares about him, as much as she denied it every time that Odd tried to point it out to her in a call.

Wincing slightly, it didn't even notice that Jeremie, Yumi, and Aelita continued on the conversation by themselves. Jeremie drew out his conclusion for how XANA was disturbing the field of gravity and by the logic in his words, Odd had to agree.

 _"What's the connection between gravity and weightlessness?"_  Odd finally joined the conversation again, listening to Ulrich's questioning voice. At least it wouldn't miss out on everything they said.

_"The magnetic field. It could be the effect of a very powerful electromagnet that XANA's using to offset the magnetic attraction of the Earth, you see?"_

Yumi tilted her head,  _"How dangerous is it?"_

 _"It's not,_ " Jeremie rubbed a hand on his chin,  _"If it is in the limits of space and time. But if it's on a larger scale... look what happened to Sissi. Her baton never came back."_

The geisha then frowned,  _"We can't take the risk. We have to go to Lyoko and deactivate the tower."_  Now that was a punch to the gut. Odd shuffled on the desert ground, already knowing how Ulrich would react. It listened to Ulrich go on and on about his father and how he wasn't good enough, that he wanted to see his father actually smile at him for the first time in his life. To have to abandon the one thing that was sure enough to earn a smile from his father... that had to be painful.

 _"Well, count me out."_  And there was Ulrich voicing his opinion. The program clenched its jaw so it wouldn't release a sigh. Hopefully there wasn't going to be any bickering from any party. Just let Ulrich go and Yumi could go to Lyoko and help the program get Aelita to the tower.

Apparently, everyone had a reaction to that but Aelita and itself. Yumi jolted in her seat and Jeremie protested,  _"You have to be kidding me!"_

 _"No,_ " Ulrich briskly replied,  _"Count me out. I'll go when the game is over."_

 _"You're gonna abandon the ship?"_  Jeremie looked hostile. Odd kept its mouth shut, wanting to do something but knowing all the while that if it did it would only make things worse.  _"For a football game?"_  Seeing that he wasn't getting a reply, Jeremie got out of his seat and walked up to Ulrich,  _"Wake up, Ulrich! This is about saving the world and not to mention Aelita who's surely in danger but you would rather k-kick a ball around?!"_

Okay, seeing Jeremie smack Ulrich's shoulder made it a bit hostile to the genius. "Hey!" It mediated, raising its paws, "Knock it off!" It didn't name who, but Jeremie  _did_ get the memo as he backed away from Ulrich.

Too bad the German decided to use it to his advantage, as he shot off the bed and glowered at Jeremie,  _"You heard what I said! I can't go and that's that! Okay?!"_  He then spun on his heel and walked to the door, his shoulders tense.

Jeremie turned around, finally facing them again,  _"Somebody say something, will you?! He's dropping us like a smelly sock!"_  Odd chose not to speak anymore, it wasn't its battle to fight.

Ulrich opened the door, then finally looked at them,  _"Look, I'm really sorry."_

 _"That's all you can say, you're sorry?! You'd rather please the crowd!"_  At that point, Ulrich walked out the door and shut it behind him. Jeremie chose to raise his voice and continue his rant, trying to get Ulrich to hear him,  _"All those admiring fans are more important than **your friends!** "_

At this point, Odd couldn't take it anymore, "Leave him alone, okay?!" It rose its voice, glaring at the blonde. Noticing it never really rose its voice angrily at its friends, the program pushed further just to get it over with, "He has his reasons. His parents are coming to the game this afternoon. Have you ever met Ulrich's dad?" It was a foolish question, none of them had. But from all the words Ulrich shared with it, it could draw its own conclusions, "If you're not first in everything you're nothing in his book. And since Ulrich's report cards are kind of disastrous, the only way to make his dad happy is-"

Jeremie sighed,  _"When he plays football."_

Odd nodded, "Yes, exactly. That's why he's been training so hard for weeks now. He's going to play today's game like his life depended on it." The silence that erupted in the room after that was deafening. It couldn't stand that, so it saluted the screen instead, "I'll meet up with you soon, Aelita." It dismissed the screen and began running to the nearest tower that would take it to the Mountain Sector.

* * *

Its claws scraped against the rocky ground, no real sound emitting from it. It watched little white lights prick up from the grey ground where it ran along in a cat-run, it also saw the lights get consumed by the ground. The Mountain Sector was mysterious, from what it could tell. It didn't gather much from here since it disliked this area, it had so many twist and turns that it was afraid to stay here. Even with the map it had access to, it felt like that it could still get trapped somewhere and never have a way out of this place.

It didn't know why Aelita adored this place so much, second to the Forest Sector she woke up in. Then again, it couldn't judge since it always liked to linger in the beautiful darkness that was the Ice Sector and the large, spacious plateaus of the Desert Sector.

A  _ping_ went off in the back of its head and then the podcast of Ulrich's game flooded its ears. No one would hear it but it unless it projected the sound, but it knew it could not pull up the screen since it was in a hurry to get to Aelita,  _"Testing one, two, testing one, two. Here we go! Hello everyone this is Milly and Tamiya reporting to you live from the stadium. It is a big day today because of the ninth grade inter-school final is about to begin between Kadic Academy and Lincoln Junior High School. Although our school is favored to win, a lot of its estimated win is on Kadic's Top Striker, Ulrich Stern and Lincoln's former Top Striker that has recently joined our school's team, Theo Gauthier. We'll be counting on both boys today to bring the win home. And now, it's football time!"_

A little smile wormed its way onto its face as it listened to the whistle blow and Milly immediately try to commentate on the action. It longed to plop down and watch the match go down from the camera, but it had important things to do before things get worse with XANA manipulating gravity itself. Sighing, it continued its run, hopping down the many rocks that gave the Sector its name. It could hear the loud crowd cheering and it decided to move that sound all to its right ear, leaving the left accessible for others to talk to it.

 _"Incredible!"_ Milly's voice cheered, sounding awed by something. If it had to guess, it was most likely Ulrich's doing,  _"We knew that Ulrich was in great form but what he's showing us today is beyond even our wildest dreams!"_ Then, a wild cheer erupted in its ear and it took a lot of willpower not to shout along with them as the whistle blew,  _"A fantastic goal! The Kadic team makes it one to nothing after only three minutes of play! Looks like Lincoln has to find a way to stop Ulrich if they're going to win this game!"_

It could  _not_ work like this, listening to Ulrich's success as it fought the demonic-like AI before it made irreversible mistakes. Sighing to itself, it was glad that it chose to move all sound to one ear to keep its hearing in Lyoko for the time being. By then, it then landed on another rocky platform and saw the familiar blue of virtualization in the air. It stood still as Yumi dropped to the ground with her usual grace, "Hello there Yumi!" It chirped, waving a paw.

"Hello to you too, Odd." She greeted back.

 _"At least you're close to someone Odd, I can safely say that the tower is thirty degrees west, now hurry up!"_  Jeremie stated, his nasally voice reaching only the program's left ear. Right ear still played Milly's commentary that mixed with the crowd's cheers and gasps. Turning west, it gladly realized it was heading the right way after all. It then recognized Aelita in the area, twisted around and walked over. Yumi took one look in the direction and ran faster than the cat-boy itself.

She waved her hand, a smile delicately on her face, "Nice to see you two again."

Odd grinned, "It's always a pleasure, Princess." Nicknames were wonderful things, giving people the chance to not state the persons name over and over again. Even if Ulrich discouraged using 'couple' nicknames it did not mean Odd had to stop using nicknames altogether.

Then, the three were off again. Heading west towards the tower, Odd acted like it was mulling over something else instead of the soft words spoken between Aelita and Yumi. It actually was, as humorous as it seemed. It continued to listen to the commentary over the game, trying not to give up the one thing its best friend worked so hard on. The whistle blew again, telling tale that someone scored once more,  _"There's no stopping the football stars! Theo, with an assist from Ulrich, managed to score Kadic's team its second goal. Now it is two to zero in Kadic's favor and if things continue to go on like this-"_ Her voice suddenly halted, followed by shouting from afar,  _"And now things seem to be heating up as well with Lincoln's Star Striker Matt and Theo on the field! Kadic's coach Jim has temporarily benched Theo, most likely to calm things down."_

Jeremie's voice reached its ear again,  _"Oh no, it's ready to attack the school! ...Now I understand!"_

"Fill us in, Einstein!"

_"If not for what happened today with Yumi and Sissi, we'd have all gone to the game and that's where XANA wanted to trap us because it was its plan. To concentrate all of its energy on the science lab and if we don't make it fast, then there's a good chance that Ulrich's going to finish the game outside of the stratosphere!"_

A chill ran down its spine and for experiencing it so much, it identified that as a mixture of fear and worry. All for the samurai, who was working to gain a 'good job' from his dad. "No monsters for the time being, but we're still far from the tower." Yumi replied, most likely talking to herself.

_"Ugh, this is awful! I got to find a way to gain some time!"_

Jeremie's voice left them alone and they were back to running again. The hushed words and Milly's cheerful voice mixed in the program's head, making it feel like both sounds were layered together.  _"Fantastic! Ulrich's as good on defense as he is on the attack!"_ There was a large jump ahead and it didn't take much to land with grace on all four limbs. Another whistle blew loudly in its ear and Milly's voice sounded winded, " _And that's the end of the first half! Kadic Team holds a two to nothing lead. Let's see if we can get some comments firsthand. Ulrich!"_ It took a great amount of strength not to perk up from its run. It instead took to clambering along the rocky ground on all fours,  _"I imagine you're confident after dominating Lincoln for the past forty-five minutes! What do you think?"_

"Has it really been that long?" It muttered under its breath, taking care to make sure Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita did not hear it. Fortunately, it seemed that it was lucky enough not to be heard as Yumi and Aelita were engaged in their small chat and Jeremie was paying attention to something else.

 _"Uh, Lincoln Junior High's team is in the finals. That means they're good. Theo came from there and you've seen him in action. And in the words of our couch Jim, "It's our motivation that'll make us winners" and I honestly think that-"_ Ulrich cut himself off and it left the program longing to pull up the feed to see what was wrong. But there were 'bigger fish to fry', as the human term claimed. Meaning that there were bigger problems at hand and it couldn't drop everything to focus on the first human to really show concern to it,  _"I uh... I got to go now. Talk to you after the game. I better relax a bit before the second half and see what Jim has to..."_ By then, Ulrich's words were fading and it was a give away sign that he was walking away from the Kadic News duo.

Milly sighed, though it wasn't one of exasperation (it has heard that sigh many times from Ulrich and Jeremie alike) but one of fondness,  _"Alright! Hey, Theo, any comments on the game so far?"_

 _"Aye,"_ Theo's voice was... weird. It wasn't one that it had heard before, though it had a bit of an inkling to a character from one of the shows it throws on sometimes from the human television,  _"I'm a bit of a wittler, but Ulrich has it in good hands. Matt's been mithering me since the start of the game but I'll show 'em..."_

It listened along to Theo's voice, finding a bit of an admiration to it. It was a nice thing, to say the least. It would have to research the language behind him, maybe it'd ask Ulrich when this was all over. "Hey!" Aelita's voice rose, making it twitch and halt its run. She pointed to a tower afar and it held the familiar red aura that belonged to the deranged AI. Yumi crouched behind the large rocks nearby and the pink elf followed, which made the cat-program follow along willingly. Theo's voice with Milly and Tamiya's commentary fading away in order to focus on Lyoko itself.

"The tower's just over there and so far no monsters in sight." Yumi murmured, placing her fingers over her chin.

Odd shook its head, "Not for long. XANA's most likely waiting to attack." The loud whistle echoed in its right ear, signaling the start of the second half of the game. Silently wishing Ulrich luck, it then attempted to calculate how long it would take just to run across the bridge that tethered the mainland to the activated tower, "My speed would be the fastest to reach the tower in four point five seconds, Yumi's avatar would make it across in five point seven seconds, and Aelita would manage to finish running across a second later."

Aelita sighed, "If we run into any monsters?" She intoned, likely agreeing with the Daemon that XANA would send monsters to attack them there.

"My speed estimation would rise up to seven point two seconds, Yumi's would be up to eight point one seconds, and you would be a stunning eight point three seconds."

_"Oh everyone's just numb! The crowd, including yours truly, simply doesn't understand! Why has Ulrich just stop?!"_

_"It must be the pressure!"_

Scratching its claws along the rocky surface, it tried to bring down the thriving panic in its stomach. What  _was_ wrong with Ulrich? "So if anything, we just have to clear a way to make sure Aelita gets across the fastest." Yumi concluded, bringing a palm down to her hand.

It nodded, trying to appear as if it was truly paying attention. Instead, it listened to the whistle blow and a cry of Milly's, " _Oh no! It can't be! What awful luck for the Kadic team! Ulrich looks hurt from that violent tackle from Matt! ...and it seems he's out of the game as well! Ulrich's leaving the stadium with a knee injury!"_

Odd decided to quit listening, noticing that Yumi  _and_ Aelita were staring at it. It must have not answered a question. Instead, it quickly decided to address Jeremie to cover up its flaw, "Jeremie, objective in sight!" It spun around, grabbing the rocks of the tall wall with its claws. It dismissed the lingering feeling it left, trying to get away from the rest of the podcast that played in its right ear. Then it took notice at the fact that during the chat it had with Aelita and Yumi that three Hornets had flew in, "The welcoming committee looks manageable! I'll get rid of them in no time at all."

Summoning its gauntlets, it listened to Jeremie's reply,  _"Okay, I should be able to neutralize XANA. But only for a few minutes. So you have to work fast."_

It spun around again, "We gotta move."

"Ten seconds to attack time!" Yumi rushed off after Odd's quick affirmative, leaving it a little time before it started to trail the geisha. It raised one of its paws, taking care to try to directly hit the flying menaces. The sounds of lasers erupted in Odd's left ear and it took a little more focus to notice Yumi's tell-tale sign of throwing a fan. It jumped up with her, shooting off two rounds of three arrows. All three Hornets trailing them erupted in red pixels, leaving nothing behind as they were erased.

Its gauntlets whirred to it, speaking of six arrows in the left gauntlet and all twelve in the right. It hadn't been paying very much attention as the Hornets rammed into both it and Yumi and knocked them to the ground, "Pretty smart for flying insects! Has XANA given them a thought processor?" It attempted to joke, but Yumi didn't crack a smile. It scowled lightly to itself, wondering when it would be able to make them smile from a silly 'joke'.

Shaking its head, it made sure to try to research more jokes later because now wasn't the time to get upset for failing to get a laugh out of its jokes. "It was only just two more, maybe XANA has-"

_"Nope, a new swarm is coming your way! XANA is surely bringing out the big guns this time around!"_

"Alright then," Yumi took the information with stride, "Then there'll be a change of tactics. Now it's time for a diversion!" It took off at those words, quick to shoot off more three layered arrows at a time. Two more Hornets exploded from the rain of small electric pieces trapped in metallic holders shaped like arrows before one smartened up and shot it directly in the chest. Holding its chest, it barely had time to summon up a shield to deflect the other laser and destroy the Hornet that decided to act upon its weakness.

Its tail wriggled and it gestured behind it, "Come on Yumes, it's your time to shine!"

Her grunting was the only reply it would get as it saw the large boulders take to surrounding both it and her. It then took the extra shielding to its advantage, " _Laser Arrows!"_

The whirring of its gauntlets told it that it had barely any arrows to shoot and thankfully Jeremie chimed in,  _"Your gauntlets should have access to forty more lasers, Odd!"_

"Thanks, I'll be needing them since they just keep on coming! It's like there's no end to them!" It backed away closer to Yumi, who finally was able to engage in speech again for a short amount of time, "What do we do?" It couldn't keep on firing arrows and hope for the best, it needed a plan... it needed a  _command_ , for once.

Yumi thankfully did not catch on to what it really meant, "The best defense is an offence, right?"

"Right!" Somehow, it knew to agree. Maybe it'd figure that one out later, "But that depends on the number of enemies." It instinctively threw up a shield at the nearest laser that headed towards it but thankfully the rock blockade took the hit for it. Yumi then took up a few more rocks to her spinning guard and Odd took its que, shooting up a storm with as many arrows as it had.

_ "You have to hang on now so Aelita can get through. Yumi, Odd, are you okay?" _

"Yeah, yeah," The commentary was now just getting on its nerves and if it had the time, it would  _so_ dismiss it, "We're having the time of our lives here Jer!" It winced, yanking its hand back to stop the wayward laser from making contact with its arm. It continued to shoot off laser arrows until Yumi took a laser to the back. It spun around immediately, shooting down the Hornet that dared to harm her as she struggled to keep up her rock barrier.

She took a few seconds but she was soon back at it again. This time she wouldn't be able to talk to it again for she needed her concentration and Odd left her to it. It was another few minutes by then when Jeremie re-engaged contact,  _"Odd, Yumi, what's happening?"_

This time it couldn't keep up its peppiness in battle, "It's very bad, Jeremie! I'm almost out of arrows, the telekinesis has completely worn Yumi out, and the more Hornets I kill the more there are!" Priorities were set and Odd was ready at a moments notice to spring from its spot and protect Yumi from the swarm of Hornets that would surely devirtualize them when the rocks fell. For now, all it could do was encourage Yumi, "Yumi, hang in there! We're almost at the other side! Come on, I know you can do it!" Her groans were growing loud enough that concern fell onto its shoulders. It turned around and faced her, halting its rain of arrows on the flying creatures, "No, not now! Concentrate! Give us just a few more seconds!"

A bright light that usually coated the geisha when she activated her telekinesis faded as her last groan fell out of her lips. Her knees quaked before she lost control of them and slumped to the ground. Her breaths were uneven and it looked like she was attempting to sleep on the ground of the Mountain Sector as the rocks from her blockade fell apart around her, "I can't do it Odd... I'm sorry..."

Unsurprisingly, feelings that were unidentifiable festered in its gut, "No no no Yumi, you have nothing to be sorry about." It clambered over to her as the Hornets buzzed around them. Weirdly enough, they gave it a chance to summon up a familiar purple shield around them and it angled its wrists to hover above her while it knelt at her side, "I'm sorry that I hadn't managed to get rid of them all-" Its words died at its lips at the sight of Aelita summoning her own path,  _walking_ to the activated tower out in the open.

"Aelita?" It asked, tuning out Yumi's labored breaths and the humming of the Hornets as they started to drift closer. Amber eyes gazed over her and suddenly it was hit with information of  _fake fake fake._ Yumi pulled herself up from underneath it and gently pushed its shield away. It dismissed it, simply watching the fake Aelita use creativity to forge a rocky path.

"It's too soon!" Yumi attempted to yell but it only sounded like a tired comment. It didn't attempt to address the copy any longer, simply doing as what the Hornets did earlier. It  _watched_ the clone attempt to make it across, being bullied by the Hornets as it went.

 _"Well Matt has the chance to tie the score with his penalty shot-!"_ Everyone erupted in screams and the podcast shut down, likely dropped to the ground... or flying up in the air broken.

It shivered as Yumi continued to try to gather the clone's attention, "Aelita! You're insane!"

 _"No no no!"_  Jeremie shouted along, completely fooled.

"I don't believe this... Aelita, stop! Retreat!" Yumi's words were dying on her lips but Odd couldn't bring itself to point out the clone itself. It couldn't for some reason. It only watched as the Hornets continuously shot at her until one finally managed to make her slip up and fall and they quickly went after her falling body to shoot it some more as overkill. Or maybe there was a platform below. It wouldn't know because of the dense fog that always lingered around the Sector.

_"AELITA!"_

Yumi ducked her head, likely trying to hide the beginning of tears that Lyoko wouldn't let form. It looked over past Yumi and seen the pink elf wink at it and say, "As soon as you're finished crying, just let me know."

Jeremie sounded choked up when he commented again,  _"Aelita, thank goodness..."_

"You were just luring them away!"

Aelita winked once again and it left the program wondering if she too studied a bit of human culture on her off time. It had yet to master the wink, after all. Jeremie ogled over his mic, shouting,  _"Aelita, you are the greatest!"_

"No time to be smooching up to your girlfriend!" Odd replied hastily, ignoring the laugh it drew from Yumi and the spluttering over the com, "Aelita, hurry and deactivate the tower!" As if remembering why she was over here, she immediately took off running past them. Odd flocked behind her and so did Yumi and by the time they reached the tower, Aelita was already in it.

Yumi snidely looked over to him, "Didn't you say she was the slowest?"

Odd decided not to grace that question with a reply. It knew she was just joking, after all. Instead, it looked on as the tower's shade of red faded to that of a beautiful deep blue. Then it continued to watch as Yumi disappeared in a beautiful grace of seafoam green pixels as Jeremie's voice came in and faded with,  _"Return to the past now!"_

* * *

A few minutes after those words, the program took to adjusting its sound to hear from both ears again. Aelita stepped out of the tower and stared at it for a second, asking, "Did your coding tell you that clone was a fake?" It nodded, mulling over the idea to use the reset tower as a way to a different sector. It could only stand the dark and murky colors of the Mountain Sector for so long, "So what were you keen on listening to back there?"

It felt its fur bristle at that comment, "What are you talking about?" It kept its voice flat, using all the notes it gathered from the internet on deceiving and lying. What it had learn may as well be useful here, it might be thanking Ulrich after the repeat of his game for making it research this.

Aelita smiled, a small laugh bubbling from her lips, "You're not going to fool me with that attitude. When Yumi and I were talking, you were obviously listening to something else because we brought up your name a few times."

"I was being respectful of your conversation?" It tried.

She giggled, patting the cat's shoulder. Its fur calmed at her touch, appeased with her purify codes leaking over its own temporarily. It took a while for Aelita's annex program to 'clean up', but after deactivating a tower her program would temporarily be exposed before shutting down until re-use, then repeat, "Yumi insulted you twice."

Twitching at that, it then crossed it arms, "I have a secret, can you keep it?" It held out its paw and she gladly shook it, her lovely smile never leaving her face. It was calming enough that the program did not flee into the tower and get lost in whatever sector it lead to, "I uh, I can possess things. Kind of like XANA," Okay, her smile was fading so it had less time to properly explain it. Darn those shows for telling it to get the conversation over with, it was causing a huge problem now! "Okay, not exactly like XANA. The gang knows I can possess their phones and take calls, little things like that. But I can take control of a things like cameras and other electronic devices but I wear out the battery much faster than usual. I don't manipulate it for my own purposes and make it do my bidding, I just use it to appease me. Like for example, there's these reporters at Kadic who record things and replay them for the school to watch. They're call the Kadic News and they have a camera. I took control of it and now I get a feed for it with sound included."

It decided showing was better than telling, so it summoned the camera footage. A dark-skinned girl was fiddling with it, muttering about how she needed to buy a new charger for the machine, "See?" It gestured, nervousness crawling around its digital incarnation.

Aelita placed a hand on her face, sighing, "Oh Odd..."

"I'm not doing anything bad, I swear! I only took control of it for Ulrich's game so I can watch my friend play!" It felt like curling into a ball and hiding away in the Ice Sector. Heck, maybe it would.

"Alright, and after that you'll disconnect from the machinery?" It didn't understand why she was so... agitated, because of this.

It held up its hand in the air, "As humans say, scouts honor!"

She then patted its back, "Alright then." She turned away from it and began to head to the reset tower. There went its plan for using it to head to a different sector.

"Y-...Y-You're not gonna watch with me?"

"No thanks, I'll hear the recap from Jeremie." The pink elf dismissed and escaped from their talk by phasing through the wall of the candle-like tower. It sighed, turning tail and fleeing from the scene on two legs instead of all fours. Maybe it'd locate another tower soon and stay away from Aelita for awhile, well, as long as it can get with XANA lurking over them.

Speaking of XANA, the program halted its run to the nearest tower and watched cautiously as a Blok skittered next to it. It listened to its gauntlets, hearing the whirring sound tell it that it had three arrows left in its right gauntlet and that was it, "Hey Blok-head," It greeted, letting itself slip into a fighting position. Couldn't let its guard down around these things and if there was one, there might be more lingering around it, "The party was over a bit ago, sorry to burst your bubble."

The tan creature stared at it with its eye of XANA, not moving nor firing off one of its many available lasers. After an estimate of three minutes, it decided to wave its other paw at the creature, keeping its gauntlet covered paw raised at the creature, "Hello? Anyone home?"

It continued to stare and Odd decided to humor it, staring back at it. Maybe it wanted to play the human game called a 'staring contest'? After initiating the game, another estimate of five minutes passed along of it taking in the tan squared creature before it blinked and sighed, "Alright, well, I'm just gonna go-"

The Daemon cried out as a laser slammed in its chest all of a sudden, thrown off guard by the  _speed_ of it. It gazed over its paws while laying on the grey-purple ground, seeing a bright yellow glow attacking its purple coat before disappearing like nothing had happen. And yet, it wasn't devirtualized like it should have been after running calculations. The Hornets left the program with ten life points and a Blok's laser should have had enough damage to it to devirtualize it temporarily, "That wasn't very nice!" It hissed, springing to its feet and shooting the medium-sized creature.

At least the Blok had the decency of following the usual 'laws' when it came to Lyoko and exploded into red pixels. With its adversary gone, the program started to run diagnostics over its coding. Apparently, the laser had the damage impact of five. It had no other description sadly, but it gained the knowledge that it had five life points left.

Deciding that it would gain no other answers from the sudden attack, it made way to leave and head to the nearest tower. But by then, the little  _blip_ of the camera echoed in its head and Milly's commentary filtered in. Abandoning that idea, it plopped down and summoned the screen of the camera to enjoy its best friend playing a good game of football. After all, there was always after the game to check over its codes at the tower.

Yeah, Odd agreed to just do that as the whistle blew and Ulrich went to work to win the game for his team.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: As you can see, this isn't Disparate (Parallels Sequel). I have been working on plotting out the series for a while now but something has come up and now I have to focus on getting the "ending" for that right. For now, I want to have a break from focusing writing on that series. I know I said I wouldn't upload this story but I feel like you, the readers, have been waiting for far too long for a story from me. Certain aspects of this story have been planned out and others, well not so much. I'll enjoy seeing the assumptions made as the story progresses. This story will follow a "episodic" rhythm much like Parallels and will include the episodes necessary to push forward the story-line in the series much like C:L had. Certain changes as you read this chapter will have their explanations, so do not fret over it. Odd will present this story as well as other characters when it is called for. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this story.


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